


THE 



BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY; 



(Sspsiinm j&f i\t jpiintl €amab% 



AND ITS 



RELATIONS TO NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JOHN HEN BY KUKTZ, D.D., 

■a ' > 

PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DORPAT, 
AUTHOR OF " MANUAL OF SACRED HISTORY," ETC. 



2T x a n s I a t z ti 



FROM THE THIRD AND IMPROVED GERMAN EDITION 



T. D. SIMONTON. 




PHILADELPHIA : 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 

185T. 



•to 

l 83"7 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 

District of Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN & SOX. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 



The work here presented to the public in 
English dress, first appeared some fifteen years 
ago, in the form of a quite small volume. Meet- 
ing with a favorable reception, both from its vi- 
gorous treatment of the vital questions which 
called it forth, and- from a native interest belong- 
ing to the higher themes upon which it touches 
— an interest to which the human mind is ever 
alive — the author was twice led to enlarge and 
improve the treatise, until in the third edition it 
has reached its present size. 

In the work of translation I have endeavored 
fairly and faithfully to present the sentiments 
and views of the author, without omission or 
accommodation — all responsibility for their 
character of course resting with himself. The 

polemical cast of some portions of the work, par- 

(iii) 



IV TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 

ticularly of the notes, will be accounted for by 
the circumstance that the author in this edition 
takes occasion to reply to numerous objections 
urged against his views as presented in former 
editions of the work. Keeping in mind the re- 
mark of the author, that "we by no means 
design to give instruction in regard to matters of 
science in the present volume," and also the ob- 
vious fact, that general and established principles, 
rather than more rapidly accumulating indi- 
vidual facts, are wanted for the discussion before 
us, I have refrained from attempting much addi- 
tion to the scientific portions of the work. A few 
facts of recent discovery in the sphere of Astro- 
nomy, evidently calling for mention, as well as 
some results of much interest, and serving to 
carry out more fully the design of the author in 
placing together, in a general way, such facts and 
views as may present to the mind with sufficient 
distinctness, the astronomical theory of the 
world, — a few such matters have been introduced 
in the form of unpretending notes and additions 
in the fifth chapter, whilst an occasional note 
has been added here and there throughout the 
work at large. 



TRANSLATORS PREFACE. V 

It may be well to state that a short treatise 
upon Geology and the Bible, together with seve- 
ral appendices of kindred matter, is to be found 
in the volume from which I translate, but which 
in no measure affect the unity and completeness 
of the work here presented. As the references 
to authorities are almost universally to German 
works, the indications of page, volume, &c., refer 
to the original, though translations of the works 
may have appeared in this country, except it be 
otherwise distinctly stated. 

T. D. S. 

Harrisburg, May 1st, 1857. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



TO 



THE THIRD EDITION. 



The present or third edition of this work has 
assumed a new form in many respects, both in 
its theological and scientific portions. Whilst in 
respect to Astronomy I have found it necessary 
only to add or incorporate the results due to the 
rapid progress of this science, I have been com- 
pelled, on the other hand, to wholly recast many 
sections of the work which more particularly in- 
volve questions of theology. Since the preceding 
edition was given to the public, I have become 
conscious of the erroneousness and inadmissibility 
of several fundamental views as therein promul- 
gated, materially affecting the whole cast of the 

(vii) 



Vlll AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

work, which with their far-reaching consequences 
must now be avoided. I may mention in this 
connection, particularly, the material change in 
my apprehension of the Hexoemeron, and the no 
less important alteration in my view of the In- 
carnation, which I now, in harmony with the old 
divines of our Church, acknowledge to have been 
conditioned alone by the sin of man. Besides, I 
have felt myself called upon to defend my views 
against the attacks of several recent writers, who 
have not only referred to my work, but also ear- 
nestly contested many of my positions. I refer 
more particularly to J. P. Lange [posit. Dog- 
maiik), Ebrard (Abhandlung ilber Bibel and Na- 
turwissenscliaft) , Hofmann (Schriftbeweis) , and 
Delitzsch [Erldarung der Genesis). Especially 
have the two last-mentioned works, from which 
I frankly and gratefully acknowledge myself to 
have derived much benefit, both in the form of 
information and suggestion, and by which I have 
willingly suffered myself to be corrected in seve- 
ral points connected with the subject before us — 
especially have these works frequently called 
upon me to enter upon a somewhat lengthened 
defence of my own views in opposition to those 



AUTHORS PREFACE. IX 

presented against them. This has been so often 
and so strikingly the case in regard to the spirited 
production of Delitzsch, that it might almost ap- 
pear to the uninitiated as though my theological 
sympathies lay in a wholly different direction 
from his, whilst I am joyfully conscious of stand- 
ing upon the same ground of Christian faith and 
doctrine, and of theological science, with my 
esteemed friend, the honored author. The more 
frequently, therefore, I am compelled to disagree 
with the learned writer in the present volume — 
confessedly, however, only in points not vitally 
affecting the grounds of Christian faith and doc- 
trine — so much the more do I rejoice that I 
shall soon in another place, have occasion to 
show how highly I prize and regard the late 
work of this author, and to testify to the advan- 
tage and stimulus I have derived from its perusal, 
as well as to show how closely my theological 
opinions coincide with his own. 

The present edition of this work has demanded 
also, in those portions not requiring to be again 
wholly elaborated, manifold improvements and 
enlargements, and sometimes, no less, abridge- 
ments, just as the more matured taste and judg- 



X AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

ment of the author has dictated. May the many 
alterations and additions made, be found to in- 
deed improve and enrich the volume, and may it 
in its new form meet with the same cheerful and 
appreciative reception as in the former editions ! 

The Authok. 

Dorpat, August, 1852. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Theology and Natural Science 17 

CHAPTER II. 
The Deistic and Pantheistic Theories of the World . , . . 42 

CHAPTER III. 
A Universal History of the Cosmos * . 61 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Biblical Theory of the Origin, Development and 

Consummation of the Universe 77 

Sec. 1. Origin, Significance, and Character of the Bibli- 
cal History of the Creation and the Primeval 
Age 77 

2. Continuation 89 

3. Continuation 105 

4. Limitation and Duration of the Days of Creation 112 

5. Creation of the Heavens and the Earth 127 

6. Condition of the Earth prior to the Six Days' 
Work , 131 

7. The First, Second, and Third Days' Work 136 

(xi) 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Pagb 

Sec. 8. The Fourth Day's Work 139 

" 9. The Fifth and Sixth Days' Work 151 

" 10. The Primeval History of Man 154 

" 11. The Position and Mission of the First Man. . . 158 
" 12. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. . 162 

" 13. The Formation of Woman 166 

" 14. The Fall 169 

" 15. The Tempter 172 

" 16. Prospect of Redemption 175 

" 17. The Morning Stars and the Sons of God 186 

" 18. Spirituality and Corporeality of the Angels. . . 191 
" 19. Nature, Position, and Mission of the Angels. . 207 

" 20. The Fall in the Angelic World 211 

" 21. The Fallen Angels not capable of Redemption 215 
" 22. The Perpetuity of Evil among the Fallen 

Angels 220 

" 23. The Abode of the Holy Angels 222 

" 24. The Heavens as the Dwelling-Place of God 228 

" 25. Retrospective View of the Primeval History of 

the Earth and Man 232 

" 26. Continuation 242 

" 27. The present Place of the Fallen Angels 249 

" 28. The Universal History of the Cosmos 262 

" 29. The Interest of the Angels in Earthly Develop- 
ments 265 

" 30. Participation of the Angels in the Preparatives 

to Salvation 268 

" 31. Christ the Second Adam 272 

" 32. Cooperation and Opposition of the Angels in 

the Life of Christ 277 

" 33. Ascension of Christ and Progress of the Con- 
test till His Return 281 

" 34. Return of Christ and Renovation of the Hea- 
vens and the Earth 286 

" 35. The Judgment and the Eternal Consummation 301 
" 36. Retrospective Glance at the Position of the 

Angels 308 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER V. 

Page 

Astronomical Investigations and Results 312 

Sec. 1. The Sun 313 

" 2. The Planets and Satellites 324 

" 3. Shooting Stars 337 

" 4. The Comets ~ 339 

" 5. Origin and Stability of the Solar System 342 

" 6. Parallaxes of the Fixed Stars 346 

" 7. Solar Nature of the Fixed Stars 350 

" 8. The Milky- Way 353 

" 9. The Central Sun 357 

" 10. Variability of the Fixed Stars 366 

" 11. Double and Multiple Stars 372 

" 12. Dark Bodies in the Heavens of the Fixed Stars 379 

" 13. The Nebulae 387 

" 14. Retrospect 413 



CHAPTER VI. 

Conflict and Harmony between the Bible and Astro- 
nomy 418 

Sec. 1. Design of this Chapter 418 

" 2. The Doctrine and History of the Creation 420 

" 3. The Creation of the World in Six Days 423 

" 4. The Creation of Light before the Sun 427 

" 5. The Creation of the Fixed Stars before the 

Earth 432 

" 6. The Creation of the Planetary System 436 

" 7. The Celestial Worlds in general Inhabited 439 

" 8. The Angels as the Inhabitants of the Fixed 

Stars 443 

" 9. Continuation 452 

" 10. Inhabitants of the Extra-mundane Bodies of our 

Solar System 456 

" 11. The Astronomical Theory of the World 461 

2 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Page 

Sec. 12. The Infinity of Space 464 

" 13. The Transcendence and Immanence of God in 

the Mirror of Astronomy 467 

14. The Incarnation of God 471 

15. Continuation 475 

16. Continuation - 479 

17. Continuation 491 

18. Continuation 507 

19. The Catastrophe of the End of the World. . . . 515 

20. The Duration of the present Course of the 
Earth. 520 

21. The Cosmical Consummation * 523 



" Jehova, unser Herr! 
Wie kerrlicli ist Dein Name auf der ganzen Erde, 
Der Du mit Deiner Prackt den Himniel gekronet ! 
Aus dem Munde der Kinder und Sauglinge 
Bereitest Du Dir eine Macht, 
tlm zu sckwicktigen Feind'und Rackgierige. 

Wenn ich selie Deinen Himmel, das Werk Deiner Finger, 
Den Mond und die Sterne, die Du gegriindet hast : 
Was ist der Mensch, dass Du sein gedenkest, 
Und der Menschensokn, dass Du ikn besuckest ? 
"Wenig unter gottlicken Stand erniedrigst Du ihn, 
. Kronest ikn mit Ekre und Herrlickkeit. 
Du lassest ikn kerrscken iiber das Werk Deiner H'ande, 
Allest legtest Du unter seiner Fusse, 
Sckafe und Binder allzumal, 
Sammt den Tkieren des Feldes, 

Den Vogeln des Himmels und den Fiscken des Meeres, 
Was nur durckwandert Pfade des Meeres. 

Jekoya, unser Herr ! 
Wie kerrlick ist Dein Name auf der ganzen Erde !" 



(xvi) 



i 5'Mbb anb Slstronomtj 



CHAPTER FIRST. 
THEOLOGY AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 



We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that 
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the 
day-star arise in your hearts. 1 

Truly the Word of God, as spoken unto us by 
holy men of old, moved by the Holy Ghost, is a 
sure word ; for though heaven and earth should pass 
away, no jot or tittle of it shall fail : it is a precious 
word, full of the energies of a divine life, a lamp 
unto our feet and a light unto our path. 

But nature also, to him who has learned to read 
therein, is a divine book laid open ; for the invisible 
things of Him, from the creation of the world, are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
made, even his eternal power and Godhead. 2 The 
heavens, also, declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment showeth forth his handiwork. 3 All that the 
starry heavens reveal in lines of light ; all that the 
seas, the depths and mountains of the earth, 

1 2 Peter 1 : 19. 2 Rom. 1 : 20. 3 Psalm 19 : 2. 

2 * (17) 



18 THEOLOGY AXD 

proclaim, — the cheerful clay and the stormy night, 
the glorious bloom of spring, with the hail which 
crushes and the frost which blasts its beauty ; the 
lily of the field, the sparrow on the roof, the hem- 
lock in the meadow, the serpent in the grass ; yea, 
even a mote in the sunbeam, or a grain of sand, 
are, when carefully read and correctly understood, 
a Word of God; testifying of former days, declaring 
His wisdom and His power, but also His holiness ; 
revealing His creative love, but also His avenging 
justice. 

The yearning and earnest expectation of the crea- 
ture '• are no less a sermon from God, fraught with 
the deepest lessons of wisdom and knowledge, testi- 
fying of blessings and curses, of death and the resur- 
rection, of sin and redemption. 2 

"Although," says one who has devoted his whole 
life 3 to the study of this divine w T riting — "although 
the book of Nature in comparison with the holy 
book of Eevelation, appears but like an obelisk 
covered with hieroglyphics, standing amid the ruins 
of an overthrown city; whose characters have in 
part become unintelligible to the present race of 
men, and in part defaced and obliterated by a hostile 
hand; yet have we good grounds upon which to 
maintain an agreement between the contents of these 
hieroglyphic tracings, which were originally also a 

1 Horn. 8 : 19-21. 

2 Compare, for example, the interesting remarks of G. H. v. 
Schubert. Ansichten von der Nachtseite der Naturwissenschaft, 4th 
ed., Dresd. 1840, p. 259 seq. 

3 G. IT. v. Schubert, Symbolik des Traums, 3d ed., Leipzig, 1840, 
p. 44 seq. 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 19 

revelation of God to man, and the contents of the 
Holy Scriptures. Yea, nature also, with unmistake- 
able clearness, bears witness of Him from whom and 
through whom are all things ; and in the present age 
of the world, when man is perversely inclined more 
to investigate and delight in physical and intellec- 
tual truths, in which he would fain find a full supply 
of his wants, than in an examination of Holy Writ, 
it is perhaps not wholly unnecessary to call attention 
to the solemn testimony of nature, and the harnion}' 
of its teachings with those of the Sacred record. 

True, the written Word of God contains all that is 
necessary for our welfare : true, the Sacred Oracles 
speak to us more clearly, intelligibly, and unmistake- 
ably, than the characters of the obelisk : they speak 
just as clearly to the learned as to the unlearned, to 
the rude and unlettered as to the talented and refined. 
For they are like "a stream of varying depth, in 
which the elephant may swim and the lamb wade," 
and whosoever hopes, with the book of Nature, to 
dispense with the book of Eevelation, his eyes are 
blinded no less to the witness of the one than the 
other, to the being and works of God. Yet still 
must we also give heed to that voice, whose sound 
goes out through all the earth, and its words to the end 
of the world J- and learn from it what is revealed to 
us through the creative word of God ; and this the 
rather, since nature — originally a message from God 
for us — may yet become a witness against us, for it 
is written, so that they are without excuse, 2 

Therefore, let the theologian, and indeed all Chris- 

1 Ps. 19 : 4 2 Rom. 1 : £0. 



20 THEOLOGY AND 

tians, deign to learn of the student of nature : let 
the student of revelation give honor to whom honor 
is due : let him cheerfully permit the masters of sci- 
ence to disclose to his view a new world of wonders, 
the product of his Father's hand. Let him frankly 
acknowledge the truth, and strive to appreciate the 
bold and laborious research by which fresh treasures 
are brought to light from the deep and hidden mines 
of science, and cast into current coin. 

But, in like manner, let the man of science give 
honor to whom honor is due, the master become the 
disciple, the teacher the pupil. Let him sit in the 
humble and teachable posture of a second Mary of 
Bethany, at the feet of a higher Master, and there 
learn the words of eternal life, and a wisdom which 
dates not its origin in time — there learn what neither 
his microscope nor telescope can reveal, and yet what 
alone can lend to his wisdom a true sacred character. 
Let him not forget that if nature be a book full of 
Divine lessons and teachings, yet is the Bible the 
lexicon and grammar, whereby alone the etymology 
and syntax of its sacred language, the form and his- 
tory, the sense and signification, of the single words, 
may be learned — that it alone is the teacher of that 
criticism, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and logic, whereby 
the "disjecta membra poetee" are to be arranged, ex- 
plained, and understood. 

But what if the Bible and Nature, instead of ex- 
plaining, amplifying, and completing, should contra- 
dict each other ? 

The Bible and Nature, since both are the work of 
God, must agree. "Where this does not appear to be 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 21 

the case, the exegesis either of the theologian or the 
student of nature must be at fault. And not merely 
the latter, but also the former is, alas ! too often 
the case, and has begotten incalculable difficulty in 
the question with regard to the harmony of nature 
and the Scriptures. 

Wherever honest doubt, desirous only of reliable 
and incontestable truth, or hostile unbelief, delighting 
ever to disgrace the cause of Bible truth in the 
eyes of the world, have brought forward pretended 
— or apparent — contradictions not capable of recon- 
ciliation, between the teachings of Scripture and the 
results of science, they have generally referred to 
the Biblical history of the creation ; and not only 
divines, but perhaps more frequently men of science, 
have enlisted all their learning and sagacity to do 
away with these pretended contradictions, and bring 
out in all its beauty and symmetry, the agreement 
between the Bible and science. 

And behold! just here, where the conflict would 
fain be the most unmistakable, and the contradic- 
tions most numerous — just here it is, that, with an 
adequate idea of Divine Revelation, and a proper 
understanding of the Divine record, a contradiction 
is wholly impossible. And for this reason, that the 
Bible neither reveals nor was designed to reveal 
what is attainable by scientific investigation; and 
conversely, that no knowledge to be gained by 
scientific research, comes within the province of 
revelation :— because these two sources of knowledge 
do not encroach in their teachings upon each other, 
but lie side by side, and hence of course cannot 



22 THEOLOGY AND 

contradict and supplant, but only (the correctness of 
their teachings in other respects granted) complete 
each other. 

The Mosaic history of the creation, 3 as the Bible 
in general, was by no means designed to give in- 
struction in regard to natural science. Nothing was 
more foreign to its object. The efforts of the human 
mind after secular culture, after art and science, 
were never designed to be mere tributaries to, and 
dependent upon, special Divine revelation. As man 
was to gain by the sweat of his brow, his daily 
bread, for the support of his physical life, from the 
earth he inhabits ; so also must he acquire from na- 
ture in, around, below, and above him, by wearisome 
effort and diligent research, science and knowledge 
for the support and culture of his .mental being. 
In no case whatever has either mathematical, 
physical, or medical science, been communicated 
to him by Divine revelation. None of the prophets 
of the old dispensation, no apostle of the new, 
gained scientific knowledge through revelation. No 
one of them was raised by Divine illumination in 
this respect, beyond the stage of knowledge and 
culture belonging to their own age. All that a 
Moses knew in the several spheres of Astronomy, 
Geology, Natural History and Medicine; in regard 
to the constitution of the starry heavens, the struc- 
ture of the earth's crust, the signs of clean and un- 
clean animals, the course or treatment of leprosy, 

1 We cannot here anticipate the detailed explanations of the 
subsequent chapters of this work, and must hence for the present 
confine ourselves somewhat to generals. 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 23 

the economy of the s^xes, etc., he had learned under 
the tuition of the Egyptian Magi, 1 or had acquired 
from personal observation and study during the 
forty years he spent in the wilderness. But Divine 
wisdom knew well how to avail itself of knowledge 
thus acquired, by natural means, and to consecrate 
it as the vehicle of imperishable ideas of grace and 
justice, of sin and redemption. All that a Solomon, 
whose wisdom attracted the Queen of the South, 
spoke or sung, 2 in his three thousand Proverbs, or 
in his one thousand and five songs; in regard to 
trees, from the Cedar of Lebanon to the hissop upon 
the wall; in regard to beasts and birds, creeping 
things and fishes; was the fruit of his own deep 
contemplations of nature ; but it was also a channel 
through which Divine wisdom might be conveyed 
to the minds of men. 

Yea, we go even further; we boldly maintain, and 
with the fullest assurance of not in the least com- 
promising the Divine character of the sacred books, 
that holy men of God, both of the Old and New dis- 
pensations, who, under the influence of the Spirit 
were moved to divine words or deeds, may very 
easily have been involved, as far as scientific know- 

1 Hence, the circumstances which brought Moses into connec- 
tion with these wise men, must be regarded as having been spe- 
cially under the divine direction. He who was to give to Israel 
the law and divine service, and with them fresh treasures of 
divine revelation, must also be learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians; in order, thereby, to attain to the highest preparation 
of his natural gifts and talents, and also sufficiently comprehen- 
sive knowledge, for the fulfilment of his Divine mission. 

2 1 Kings, 4 : 32, 33. 



24 THEOLOGY AND 

ledge is concerned, in the common and prevailing 
errors of their age. Such errors did not in the least 
detract from the religious truths they were called 
upon to announce, and impress upon the hearts of 
men. If it be true, for example, that in the time of 
Joshua the common opinion prevailed, that the sun, 
together with the whole starry heavens, revolved 
around the earth in 24 hours, certainly Joshua him- 
self was not raised above this error; and it doubtless 
lay at the foundation of that command, evincing 
such signal faith and so often commented upon : 
" Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon 
in the valley of Ajalon." 1 Joshua spoke the com- 
mand of faith as he understood the matter, but the 
Divine hearing of the command was carried out as 
God understood it. 2 Nor should our faith be any 
more estranged from the Scriptures, on finding that 
the geocentric view underlies their teachings in 
other passages. 3 Moses also may have had very 

1 Jos. 10 : 12, seq. 

2 The desire of Joshua was, to see the light of day remain, and 
the darkness of night prevented, until he had secured his object 
in the pursuit of his enemy. And this desire he gained through 
his extraordinary faith. It was a matter of no moment to the 
faith of Joshua centuries ago, nor is it now, to the faith of the 
reader, by what natural means such a supernatural effect should 
be produced. 

3 All attempts, therefore, to prevent the inspiration of the 
Bible from suffering in respect to matters of human science, by 

.proving that though the Scriptures may indeed speak geocentri 
cally, the heliocentric view, nevertheless, underlies their teach- 
ings, must be regarded as having mistaken their object, and aa 
tending to error. This is nothing more than the opposite pole of 
that perverse and mistaken spirit, which sought the rejection of 



NATURAL SCIENCE. . 25 

many physically erroneous views touching the nature 
of the starry heavens, or the structure of the earth, 
as he in the spirit of prophecy conceived the history 
of the creation of the heavens and the earth, without 

the Copernican system, because a few passages of Scripture in- 
volve the geocentric view. Such was the error committed by the 
worthy G. Fr. v. Meyer, who, in his Bldttem fiir holiere Wahrheit, 
viii, 342 seq., tries to defend the formal proposition: "The Bible, 
in thought, takes the heliocentric view." In order to effect this, 
he adduces particularly, James 1st, 17th : " Every good gift and 
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow 
of turning." In explanation, he adds : " Here allusion is made 
to the earth, in contrast to the lights of the firmament, and there 
is attributed to the former, not as an accidental, but as an inhe- 
rent quality, what is denied as an essential or inherent property 
with God, namely, a variableness and darkness produced by turn- 
ing (or rotation). Were reference here made to a revolution of 
the heavens about the earth, in connection with which the sun 
produces the alternation of day and night, this motion would be 
something external to, and not belonging to the earth, which 
would not be in harmony with the import of the contrast. We 
concede that the hint is a very slight one, not rising to the cha- 
racter of a direct animadversion ; and we regard the passage as 
a proof, as delicate as it is clear, that no less according to the 
wisdom of the Spirit of God, than the teachings of modern 
science, the earth rotates upon its axis ; yea, that it holds, as is 
scarcely to be separated from its axial rotation, its annual course 
around the sun, and hence, of course, that the heliocentric system 
must underlie the views of the Bible." G. F, G. Goltz (in his 
otherwise not unworthy small treatise : Die Stillstehende Sonne 
zu Gibeon, Berlin, 1833, p. 35) concurs in this course of reason- 
ing, and adduces as an additional argument, Gen. 1:5: " Then 
from evening and morning arose the first day," [as Luther ren- 
ders the passage]. By this he would have us understand: "Then 
came the day from evening (the west) towards morning (the 
east)." And thus does the passage contain evidence that the 

3 



26 THEOLOGY AND 

its at all being necessary that his mind should have 
been thereby disabused of these errors ; for the 
Mosaic history of the creation was by no means in- 
tended to give instruction in physics, but its design 
was wholly to impart religious knowledge. 

True, however, it is also conceivable that a physi- 
cal truth may be interwoven with the revelation of 
religious truths, either as the necessary vehicle of 
the latter, or perhaps as the accidental attendant, or 
in a measure, the exponent of such truths. Doubt- 
less, the religious or ethical position of something 
in nature, which is the object of revelation, may be 
so conditioned by its physical constitution, which is 
matter of scientific inquiry, that an erroneous appre- 
hension of the latter would give to the former a 
false character and an erroneous tendency. Thus, 
for example, the physical constitution of the uni- 
verse, the adjustment and connection of the different 
bodies composing it, their mutual relations, and the 
like, may also have a religious significance; which, 
as such, might be matter of revelation, so far as a 
more profound knowledge of it might lend to our 
minds a more comprehensive or a clearer insight 
into the Divine plan of the world, in which we are 
also included, and so deeply interested. But even 
in such cases, physical instruction cannot be so con- 
nected with revelation, either as its direct object, 
nor yet as its consequence, that the human mind 

earth rotates from the west to the east; for, were the Scriptures 
to speak geocentrically, they should say, in accordance with the 
apparent course of the sun : " Then from the morning and the 
evening, arose the first day." 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 27 

given up to the influence of the Spirit, should there- 
by be occasioned or forced to give up erroneous 
views in the sphere of physics ; or rendered capable 
of so anticipating the future developments of human 
science, that its knowledge thus acquired, should 
stand in open conflict with the stage of development 
belonging to that age : for both these alike would 
directly conflict with the character of Divine revela- 
tion. Revelation in such cases refrains from com- 
municating knowledge, as indeed it does not design 
to reveal at once, all and everything that is of re- 
ligious significance. iNTay, rather, it is like a gover- 
ness, who does not at once impart to the child com- 
mitted to her care, all she knows ; but merely at each 
time what is immediately required for the advance- 
ment of her pupil, or what its previous culture 
has fitted it to receive and apply. The Holy Scrip- 
tures in such cases, evince their Divine character in 
this ; that they leave room for all the future progress 
and results of science, that they never are found in 
error, and that no new science may approach them 
with the remark, "Had ye but been silent." But 
we may rest in the confident assurance that hereafter 
— in eternal life — a revelation of a vastly higher and 
more comprehensive kind, will rectify the errors of 
our human science, fill up its chasms, and disclose 
to our eager minds its higher religious import. 

The error on the part of the student of the Bible, 
when contradictions seem to arise on a comparison 
of the facts of revelation wuth the results of science, 
consists frequently in this : that he expects to find in 
the Bible, information that is wholly foreign to it, 



28 THEOLOGY AND 



and which it would have no motive in communi- 
cating; since for the time being it still lies wholly 
without the sphere of its objects. Deluded by the 
ignis fatuus of this false expectation, the Scriptures 
are examined ; and, thus examined, naturally appear 
in a false light and are wrongly apprehended. 

But none the less may the pretended or supposed 
contradiction rest upon an erroneous interpretation 
on the part of the student of nature, in that he too 
may approach the Book of nature with unwarranted 
pre-suppositions, and there read from its pages what 
he himself put into them. As the scientific and 
physical point in regard to any matter, is not the 
subject of revelation, so, conversely, the specifically 
religious point does not fall within the sphere of 
empirical science. "Whether, for example, the world 
was created in time, and from nothing, through the 
will of a personal God, as the Bible teaches; or 
whether, as erring belief of both ancient and modern 
times teaches, it be itself God and eternal, so that 
the origin of new forms of life in it manifest only 
its proper self-development; is a question which no 
man of science is able to determine, from the results 
of his observations and investigations ; for the in- 
strument of such knowledge is faith alone. It ever 
eludes the grasp of empirical science, and the more 
conscientious and faithful such science is, so much 
the more carefully will it abstain from all such erro- 
neous and presumptuous expectations. It were the 
gravest possible self-delusion for the student of na- 
ture, or any one else, to imagine that the results of 
his empirical investigations required him to deny 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 29 

the Biblical doctrine of the creation of the world. 
JNot science, but speculation (for error may exist in 
the magnet or compass no less readily than faith or 
truth), is to blame for such vain assumptions. 

As with the Biblical doctrine of the creation, so is 
it with the other fundamental doctrines of the Scrip- 
tures, which are regarded as being incompatible with 
the results of science. There is drawn or extorted 
from these results — true and false — a theory of the 
world, in which the Biblical doctrines of angels and 
spiritual beings, of original sin and the incarnation ; 
of redemption and the end of the world, of the judg- 
ment, resurrection, and future state, no longer find 
room or recognition. And here again it is not 
natural science that is to blame; but unbridled 
speculation, or rather an already existing tendency 
of thought or imagination, which carries specula- 
tion with it, and thus does violence to the results of 
scientific investigation, in order to force them to say 
what is most pleasing to the unbelieving ear. 

When we take into consideration, in addition to 
the arbitrary course of philosophical speculation, 
also the unreliable character of those scientific re- 
sults which it makes use of as starting-points, it at 
once becomes clear how little weight is to be as- 
cribed to its deductions, in contrast with the teach- 
ings of revelation. For it is a notorious fact, that 
the more deeply science attempts to press into the 
secrets of the origin and existence of all things, to 
solve the problems of time and space, so much the 
more unreliable do its results become. It is open to 
error in precisely the same ratio that difficulties pre- 
3* 



30 T II E L G Y A R D 

sented by the sea and the mountains, the depths of 
the earth and the heights of heaven, stow in magni- 
tude. It is the less liable to take appearance for 
reality and reality for appearance, josl in the Bame 
degree that it confines itself to the surface of things, 
without being able to pierce to their centre. lis 
results are the more inadmissible, the greater the 
difficulty our abstract age has to surmount, in un- 
riddling its hieroglyphics and picture-writing; and 
in the same ratio dors a Bagacious criticism become 
necessary, to distinguish what is genuine from what 
is false or interpolated, in the great Book of Nature. 
For let us not attempt to conceal the fact that nature 
no longer offers us the pure hand-writing of God : it 
is, in many respects, a palimpsest, a "codex rescrip- 
ts :'' an enemy's hand has passed over it, and ob- 
literated or rendered indistinct many a precious cha- 
racter, and introduced or superscribed many a word 
which did not originally belong to it. 

Hence it is clear that the Scriptural theologian has 
little to fear from the pretended antagonistic cha- 
racter of the results of science. But if a conflict 
nevertheless arises, lei him Bearch the Scriptures 
with all diligence, and test with the greatest sacrifice 
of opinion his apprehension of the written word, 
forgetting all assumption of personal sagacity and 
knowledge, — let this be his only presupposition ; that 
the word of God must stand and mil stand, immov- 
ably firm, in opposition to all the assaults and con- 
fusion of the opinions (^i' the age, and of human 
wisdom, as well as all the pretensions of human 
science. If he do not thus succeed in solving the 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 31 

supposed contradiction, let him securely remain in 
the fortress of the Word, under the cheerful convic- 
tion that the contradiction is either merely an appa- 
rent one — none at all — or that the error lies upon 
the side of science. Let him rely upon science, or 
rather, upon the living God, whose potent word in 
spite of all human pretensions, supports even science 
itself, that it (science), in the purifying fires of its 
own development, will separate from the true sub- 
stance, all wood, hay, and stubble. To swear by 
the words of a master, may in all other cases indi- 
cate a dependent and timid mind; but there is a 
Master by whose words we may swear, and at the 
same time evince true freedom and independency : 
The Lord and his Spirit, for it is written : " neither 
be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even 
Christ." x 

Fortunately, however, the case is still propitious. 
True science, and particularly natural science, has 
in all ages of the world willingly taken a ♦position 
at the feet of revelation; and has ever carefully 
avoided any attempts to bring its results into hostile 
antagonism with the teachings of Scripture. AYe 
might bring forward a not insignificant array of 
witnesses to the truth of Christianity, from the 
ranks of science ; we might recount a host of cele- 
brated names, from Albertus Magnus down to Schubert 
and Ouvier, which, at the same time, are of note in 
the Christian world. We might bring forward a 
host of witnesses, who shine as stars of the first 
magnitude in the firmament of science, who all 

1 Matt. 23 : 10, comp. John 8 : 32, 36. 



32 THEOLOGYAND 

have cheerfully asserted their unshaken faith in Holy 
Writ, and the harmony of its teachings with the 
results of their scientific investigations — if this did 
not lead us too far from our present object, if it had 
not already been frequently and satisfactorily done. 

The more astonishing and greater the progress of 
the natural sciences collectively in our day, the 
more day by day our knowledge of nature increases 
in depth and expands in compass, and the results and 
views obtained become the highly prized, if not indeed 
sometimes over-valued common property of all culti- 
vated minds, — so much the less is the Christian, and 
particularly the divine, called upon to ignore them ; 
nay rather, so much the more is it necessary that he 
should bring these results and views into fruitful 
connection with Holy Writ, in order that the two 
might be united and mutually complete each other. 
Endeavors to consummate such a union have, in- 
deed, often been misconstrued, and the call for 
them even often denied, both on the part of science 
and also religion. ISTor have contemptuous insinua- 
tions been wholly wanting. These, however, we may 
well leave unnoticed; but objections sincerely urged, 
in the name of religion or science, we duly recog- 
nize ; but none the less on this account do we con- 
sider the difficulties upon which they are based, 
as without due foundation. 

E~ay rather, we maintain that science can but reap 
advantage from a vital union with faith; nor can 
faith, on the other hand, derive less benefit from a 
similar union. Science receives its true consecration 
from faith, its eternal significance, outreaching far 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 33 

the bounds of time ; faith derives from science, 
warmth and vivacity, vigor and fullness. Science is 
the younger brother of faith ; both are the offspring 
of the same parent, that eternal Wisdom through 
which all things were made, and by which they are 
supported and preserved. Should not a common 
love to a common parent, by whom they are both 
sustained, be also a bond of sympathy between 
them ? Can it be that one of them should wholly 
disregard the welfare of the other? Can the elder, 
without the guilt of fratricide, repeat the impious 
speech : "Am I my brother's keeper?" Or shall the 
younger be allowed boldly to vaunt himself, and 
say: I have no need of you ? 

But, says the advocate of science, shall the science 
of physics, which has but lately burst the fetters 
imposed upon it by a narrow-minded religion, be 
bound anew ? Shall the more free and happy course 
of development, which it has but lately entered upon, 
be obstructed anew by the dogmas of the church? 
Would not its freedom of vision, in the most favor- 
able cases, be thus obscured or obstructed by preju- 
dices or pre-conceived notions ? Were natural sci- 
ence again to be vitally united with faith, it would 
certainly lose its sovereignty and independence, and 
then might we expect a return of those dark ages, 
in which an Albertus Magnus and a Roger Bacon 
were decried as magicians, and a Gallileo persecuted 
and imprisoned. — Eot so ! this should not be the 
case, this will not be the case ! Science is not to 
become the mere servant of faith ; it is only to strive 
with it toward a common object, in free and uncon- 



34 THEOLOGY AND 

strained alliance, viz : the glorifying of God through 
a knowledge of his wisdom and power, his grace 
and holiness ; and the advancement of man to the 
image of God, through a knowledge of his own call- 
ing, his position and mission in the world. Science 
is not to be cheated of its freedom ; but is to become 
a co-heir of the riches laid up in the Father's house : 
the sphere of its calling is not to be closed against 
it. -^ay rather, let it descend into the deepest 
depths, and climb to the highest heights ; let it take 
the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, or with the swift footsteps of 
light, hasten to the giddy heights of the heavens ; 
but let it not forget the Father's house, nor fail fre- 
quently to return thither, casting its acquired trea- 
sures humbly at the feet of the everlasting Parent, 
in order that they may be thoroughly purified in the 
refining fire of eternal wisdom. Its efforts and zeal 
are not to be lightly esteemed or despised by faith ; 
but, at the same time, let it not be too haughty to 
heed the counsel and admonitions of its elder 
brother, and avail itself of his wisdom and experi- 
ence. 

But on the opposite side we see a similar array of 
difficulties. Thus objects the partisan of faith : the 
Bible furnishes us with wholly reliable, objective 
truth : natural science, with unsatisfactory or inade- 
quate perceptions, subjective views or notions. In the 
case of the latter, what to-day passes for indubitable, 
impregnable truth, is to-morrow resigned as error, 
only to be followed by a new view, in all probability 
destined for a similar fate. Are we justified in 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 35 

bringing together, uniting and mingling, what is 
divinely communicated with what is obtained by 
mere human means or investigations ? Must we not 
rather ever carefully draw a line of distinction be- 
tween the two, lest the objective enter the sphere of 
subjectiveness, the absolutely true and reliable the 
sphere of error, and thus itself become the subjective, 
the unreliable, the unsafe ? 

However worthy of regard sentiments expressing 
themselves in such fears may be under the circum- 
stances, still there underlies them a certain weakness 
of faith, and also a slight consciousness of this 
weakness. For assuredly that is not the true faith, 
that overcometh the world, which fears science and 
dares not look it full in the face. Such a faith is far 
from that stability and assurance, that holy boldness 
which characterizes the champions of faith. True, 
it is not to be concealed that faith, should it enter 
into such a proposed alliance with human science, 
would be exposed to many dangers, which otherwise 
it might perhaps avoid. It would be forced to self- 
distrust, and to relinquish to some extent its self- 
complacent claims of directness and infallibility; 
it mast leave the safe harbor of repose, and entrust 
its precious bark to unknown seas. It is not impos- 
sible that the vessel might be engulphecl in the wild 
waves of doubt, shattered upon the cliffs of know- 
ledge, or stranded on the sand-bars of speculation 
Nevertheless, faith is ever endowed with a divine 
energy ; the bark, however weak it may appear, is 
possessed of an anchor capable of withstanding the 
most tempestuous surges, a compass which never 



36 THEOLOGY AND 

varies, and there is besides One within the vessel 
who rebukes the wind and says unto the sea, "Peace, 
be still" l He also calls to us and says : " Why are ye 
so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? 2 Danger 
exists only where we avail not ourselves of this 
Divine strength or succor. If we, like the unprofit- 
able servant, lest we lose the talent committed to us, 
hide it in the earth, and then in the day of reckoning 
like him, boldly approach our Lord with the words : 
"Jjo, there thou hast that is thine,"* let us beware lest a 
like sentence be also pronounced upon us. 

And wherefore this over-wrought fear lest the 
objective, the Divine, derive from man a subjective 
character or coloring? Is then the subjective, in 
itself, necessarily erroneous and unreliable? Has not 
also subjectivity its sacred, its inalienable rights? 
And is there in general any human knowledge, 
desire or emotion, which does not proceed from or 
pass through the sphere of the subjective ? Was not 
the objective truth of the Scriptures subjectively im- 
parted, passing through and deriving a coloring 
from the peculiarities of the human mind? Does 
not the preaching or writing of a Paul or a James, 
of a Peter or a John, bear the clear impress of sub- 
jectivity — true, of a sublime and exalted, of a holy 
and sanctified, of a strengthened and vigorous sub- 
jectivity? True enough, the Bible furnishes us with 
the objective truth in all its fulness ; but this, not in 
its separate sentences and divisions, but in its whole 
scope or conception, in the unity of its prismatico- 

1 Mark 4 : 39. 2 Ibid, v. 40. 3 Matt. 25 : 25. 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 37 

subjective rays. Take away subjectivity from the 
Bible, and you either put the Bible far away from 
yourself, or stand aloof from it, — your faith becomes 
a mere blind faith, a dead, worthless thing. It is no 
longer a Divine power, purifying, restoring and 
thoroughly strengthening you. 

Far be it from us to seek for the subjective, a 
boundless sway in the sphere of religion. For by so 
doing we should blindly turn our weapons against 
ourselves, and the holy kingdom of God, to guard, 
protect and serve which, we deem our most sacred 
duty. We acknowledge and revere the Scriptures 
as the only infallible source of all religious truth, as 
the canon of judgment in all matters of religion ; 
yea, further, we acknowledge and revere the Church 
as a firm barrier against all arbitrary explanation or 
interpretation of the written word ; as a basis upon 
which we are called to build a store-house of true 
and sacred knowledge, increasing in extent and 
purity with the progress of each century. There 
is, indeed, much truth in the favorite proverb : 
"the history of the world is the judgment of the 
world," but much more comprehensive and incon- 
testable is the truth, that the history of the Church 
of Christ, in its developments, is a judgment upon 
private interpretation or views which have spread 
abroad in the Church. It is a purifying fire in which 
all the dross of erroneous apprehensions, to which 
the most honest and truth-loving subjectivity is 
inevitably exposed, shall be fully separated, so that 
at last only the refined gold of pure doctrine may 
remain as a basis for future development; for we 
4 



38 THEOLOGY A XL 

believe, in accordance with the Divine promise, in a 
powerful presence and influence of the Holy Spirit 
in the Church, which is ever victorious. But at the 
same time it is not to be forgotten, that all the ob- 
jective, truths of the Church have proceeded from 
efforts and investigations in the sphere of the sub- 
jective from human knowledge, Divinely blessed. 
For example, those were primarily subjective views 
which noble and highly gifted men, such as Atha- 
nasius, Augustine, and the like, spoke, impelled by 
the deepest personal necessity of their life and know- 
ledge ; but it was the victorious power of indwelling 
truth, and the invisible influence of the spirit of God, 
which imparted to their views objective validity and 
worth in respect to the Church. 

But those parts of religious knowledge which here 
concern us, are, in part, precisely such as the Church 
in her wisdom has not heretofore given a place in 
the sphere of the objective, and are most likely also, 
in part, such as must forever be excluded therefrom. 
There is a " dark side of Natural Science" of which 
a sage of the present day has given us profound and 
interesting " vi*ws ;" there is also, no less, a dark side 
of the science of revelation, which in part coincides 
with the former. To the dark side of the latter 
pertain all those matters which are not lighted up 
by the rays of a clear mid-day sun, but mysteriously 
appear only slightly unveiled beneath the glimmer- 
ing of distant stars; but which are destined, when 
night with her enshrouding shadows departs, and 
day draws on apace, to stand forth, in the clearest 
and most satisfactory light. Only for such parts of 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 39 

religious knowledge do we claim the right of sub- 
jective views, only in such cases do we allow our- 
selves to seek the lights of natural science, in order 
to see if thus the subject may not stand forth more 
clearly, in more definite outline, just as, conversely, 
we would apply the lights of revelation to the dark 
side of natural science. 

The results of scientific research have arrived at 
this point — they have acquired for themselves a posi- 
tion and acknowledgment by the side of religious 
truths. But the human mind is no abstract, dead 
framework or receptacle, in which the human and 
the Divine, each by itself, may be laid up and pre- 
served, so that they should not mutually touch or 
pervade each other, and be united. The mind is an 
indivisible whole, a living unity ; every effort or 
action demands the whole mind ; all new knowledge 
which it receives thoroughly pervades it, and most 
intimately unites itself with the system of knowledge 
which is already possessed ; and wherever this union 
is not possible, previous acquirements must either be 
yielded up, or the new must be denied admission. 
" It is the mission of faith to unite all with itself and 
pervade it with its own spirit ; to lend to all a pure, 
religious and sacred character, and especially to 
mould, as it were, all science into Theology. And, 
on the other hand, it belongs to the nature of a firm 
scientific conviction, that it cannot abide the presence 
of any religious conviction or belief, unless it be 
fully conscious of a true and full agreement between 
the two." 1 This is especially the case, however, in 

1 Lange, Das Land der Herlichkeit, p. 6. 



40 THEOLOGY AND 

regard to the inductive sciences. There is inherent 
in them, as experience has sufficiently taught us, a 
power of conviction which may even endanger the 
authoritative claims of faith. It was upon this power 
that Dr. David Strauss relied, and assuredly he did 
not mistake as to the power itself, when he dared in 
his " Glauben&lehre" to oppose to revelation, a hand- 
ful of sorry invalid troops, enlisted from the lazar- 
houses of Astronomy, Geology and Anthropology, 
and with incomparable assurance, attempted to per- 
suade the public that they were a youthful, vigorous 
and insurmountable host. — Shall we look upon such 
scenes and fold our hands in inglorious ease ? Shall 
science offer us in vain its blooming, youthful ener- 
gies, for our protection and defence ? Has not the 
saying : The children of this loorld are wiser in their 
generation than the children of light J been long enough 
written for us to have learned the lesson it would 
teach ? 

Let us not be misunderstood. "We by no means 
desire to see Theology beg its daily bread at the 
door of Natural Science, while it possesses at home 
the richest supplies of heavenly manna : nor do we 
desire to see it, as the Athenian, ever eager to see or 
hear some new thing, whilst the Bible freely offers 
its precious treasures of wisdom and knowledge — 
treasures ever fresh and new, and which can never 
be fathomed or exhausted. Neither do we wish it 
to imitate the example of the children of Israel in 
'following after the gods of the Canaanites, burning 

1 Luke 16 : 8. 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 41 

incense in every grove, and sacrificing upon every 
hill ; whilst the quiet, delightful service of the God 
of Abraham, beckoned them to come to His courts ; 
whilst the wondrous love and grace of Jehovah 
claimed their praise and adoration. But we desire 
that it should freely adapt to itself and apply to the 
glory of God, as well as to the advancement of the 
human mind, destined to fiud its end in Him, all 
that true science has acquired in its eager efforts 
after truth, in its untiring search for knowledge. 
We rely upon the unfailing power and life inherent 
in Divine truth, to separate and cast off, just as does 
the living organism, foreign and unappropriable 
matter, all error or falsehood which may insinuate 
itself along with truth. "We desire that the vision 
of Theology should be rendered clear by the lamp 
of the Divine Word, so that it may discern gifts and 
spirits, 1 and not inconsiderately admit whatever is 
obtruded upon its attention. 

1 1 Cor. 12 : 10. 



4* 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

THE DEISTIC AND PANTHEISTIC THEORIES 
OF THE WORLD. 

Two antagonistic extremes in the province of re- 
ligion, are to be met with in all ages of the world ; 
and especially in our own times — Deism and Pan- 
theism. The grand point of conflict between these 
two religions tendencies is, as is well known, the 
relation of God to the world. The former acknow- 
ledges only a far-distant God, whose infinite great- 
ness prevents him from stooping to regard every 
little circumstance in the world, and renders it ne- 
cessary that he should commit the preservation and 
government of the world to the so-called laws of 
nature. The latter recognizes only a God near at 
hand and in the world, who lives in and shares his 
life with all things, who unfolds himself in a blade 
of grass, who finds his highest development in the 
mind of man, and whose life is the life of nature, 
apart from which it has no existence. Both these 
tendencies or views are, when opposed to each other, 
in the right ; for each one has at its foundation a 
deep religious necessity, of which its antagonist is 
wholly unconscious. But both are, when opposed 
to Christianity, in error; as the latter unites in a 
most comprehensive system the elements of truth 
contained in these antagonistic views, and yet shuns 
their one-sided features. "We shall employ the terms 

(42) 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 43 

Deistic and Pantheistic to designate the false theo- 
ries of the world to which these extreme and one- 
sided views have mutually given rise. To these we 
will then oppose the Biblical theory of the world, 
together with the results and views of modern as- 
tronomy, which serve to explain and establish that 
theory. 

Let us first notice the arguments in support of the 
Deistic theory of the world. This theory, which 
claims to be "par excellence" the learned one, has 
in modern times borrowed the weapons with which 
it attacks the inspired word of God, chiefly from the 
armory of natural science. That its weapons thus 
acquired are not always those of the keenest edge, 
and that it has been forced to content itself, amid 
others, with some very blunt, inferior, and unservice- 
able ones, will be seen as we proceed. 

It is maintained that ever since the earth has, by 
the reception of the Copernican system, been low- 
ered from its proud imaginary height as the throne 
and centre of the universe, to the low and servile 
position of a mere satellite to one of the most insig- 
nificant suns, the Biblical theory of the world must 
be looked upon as antiquated and exploded. For 
the planets of our solar system are worlds like our 
earth, and are doubtless like it inhabited. All the 
millions of fixed stars in the Milky Way, are suns 
like ours, many of them vastly larger and more 
magnificent than it, and like it, encircled by moons, 
planets, and comets. And those nebulous spots, 
visible only through the telescope, are new systems 
of Milky Ways, whose resolution into millions of 



44 DEISM AND P A If T H E IIS If. 

stars is prevented only by a distance which mocks 
the powers of our "best instruments. Sir \Y. Her- 
schel, even in his day, counted about 3000 such ne- 
bulae ; and how many thousands may still he hidden 
in the depths of space, beyond the reach of the best 
instruments of the present day ! As far as the eye 
can penetrate, we see planets revolving about suns, 
carrying their satellites with them. But the sun 
also, and the fixed stars, of a like nature with it. are 
moving in a direction probably common to them all. 
Perhaps all these bodies, with their accompanying 
planets, moons, and comets — bound together under 
the influence of the powerful laws of attraction and 
gravitation — are sweeping in wide and majestic 
orbits, round a mighty, all-controlling central sun, 
far withdrawn from the reach of the eye or the tele- 
scope. Such a harmony of movement must also be 
assumed as most probably existing in all the systems 
of Milkv TTavs. But, though the human mind 
survey systems so vast in scope, all is not yet ex- 
hausted, no end of worlds is yet to be found. How 
then shall this little spot, earth, dare, in heaven- 
defying boldness, to oppose itself to the whole uni- 
verse, of which it appears the most paltry and in- 
significant speck? "Who can persuade himself to 
believe that all these millions of worlds are so in- 
significant, that the Creator spent but a single day 
in their creation, while the superior value of our 
earth demanded five days of his time '? And when 
we remember that light, with the astonishing: ve- 
locity of 102.000 miles in a second, is from nine to 
twelve years in reaching us from the nearest fixed 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 45 

star, and that Herschel. could distinguish by means 
of his colossal telescope, stars still one thousand 
times more distant, whose light must travel for 9000 
years before striking our retina — when we reflect 
that, according to the computations of that great 
astronomer, many nebulae are 300,000 times further 
distant from us than the stars by which we are im- 
mediately encompassed, and that not until it had 
swept through space for about 3,000,000 of years, 
could their light reach our eyes — how can the asser- 
tion, that all these bodies and systems were created 
with our earth, some G000 years ago, maintain its 
ground? Who can be so devoid of reason as to 
imagine that all the countless and immeasurable 
worlds of the firmament, have been placed there for 
the service of this atom, earth ; to adorn its nights, 
or in addition, perhaps, to exercise the astrological 
faculties of its inhabitants ? Yea, who can believe 
what is incredible, that the Creator of all these sys- 
tems of worlds should have condescended as a child, 
to speak with the children of men ? and more, not 
only to take upon himself human nature, of earthly 
origin, but also take that nature with him into eter- 
nity, into blessedness. Thus, then, as a writer who 
has set himself up as the representative of the Deistic 
tendency, has assured us again and again, 1 since the 
Ptolemaic system has been overthrown, all the funda- 
mental doctrines of Christianity, such as those touch- 
ing the incarnation of the Son of God, his atone- 
ment, his ascension to heaven and his future advent, 

1 Compare BretscJmeider, Sendschreiben an einen Staatsmann, 
p. 70. 



46 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

the doctrines of a resurrection and a judgment, of a 
heaven and a hell — all these fall to the ground as 
the playhouses of children are overthrown by a 
storm. 

It is not to be so confidently affirmed, however, 
that the triumph of the heliocentric doctrine, as 
such, furnished the occasion and served as a signal 
for such "en bas" clamor; indeed, it is more than 
doubtful that such was the case. It is certain at 
least, that the three greatest and most zealous cham- 
pions of this doctrine, and those to whom it owes its 
common and intelligent reception among men, most 
strenuously protested against the honor attempted 
to be heaped upon themselves, of having by their 
teachings detracted from the validity and authority 
of those doctrines of the Scriptures ; for Copernicus, 
Kepler, and Newton, were sincere, believing Chris- 
tian men, who reposed their only hope in time and 
for eternity upon the truth of the doctrines of the 
Bible. 1 But if, on the other hand, we seek to trace 

1 The Christian sentiments of the latter particularly, are well 
known to the world, through his posthumous theological works. 
The cause of his enemies was, indeed, sought to be furthered by 
the base report, that he (Newton) had, in the closing years of his 
life, fallen into a childish and melancholic state of mind. Some 
even went so far as to commiserate the great man, that such a 
misfortune should have befallen him, and to show quite a fair 
amount of indignation, that any one should have been so unfeel- 
ing as to expose the decadence of so great a mind, before all the 
learned of Europe, by the posthumous publication of the produc- 
tions of his childish old age. But let us hear what is said in this 
connection by the " Conversations-texiko?i," ed. 8, vol. 8, p. 321 
(comp. 9th ed., vol. 10, p. 735) which would be accused of religious 
bias by no one : " The remarks of the philosophers of the 18th 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 47 

the true pedigree of the presumptive antagonist of 
our Christian faith ; Copernicus, Kepler and Netvton f 
deny all relationship with it; perhaps Shaftesbury, 
Toland, and Tindal, would not be so modest. 

We are certainly not in error when we assert that 
just here lies a self-deception, which we have met 
too often to be ignorant of it. Two plants may 
draw their nourishment from the same soil, and yet 
their fruits be of entirely different kinds. The 
analogy of this is to be found in the moral and 
intellectual world. The Hegelian school of philo- 
sophy produced a Strauss and a Feuerbaeh; but also 
such men as Goschel. Both parties proceeded from 
the philosophy of that great thinker, the former 
using it as an instrument to overthrow all Scriptural 
belief, the latter drawing from it the strongest sup- 
century, touching the disorder of Pascal's mind, are founded 
upon the same false basis as the report of Newton's mental 
calamity. The Christian sentiments of the one as well as the 
other, being of a decided and open character, when denial of the 
fact would no longer answer, it was attempted to account for it 
through mental unsoundness. Chronology furnishes a complete 
refutation to all such ungracious charges." Newton's theological 
writings owe their origin to the bloom of his manhood. As to 
Kepler, com p. his life, by BreitscTiwert, 1831, and the notice of 
the same by Tholuck, in his vermiscMen Schriften, II, p. 384-402. 
As to the religious sentiments of Copernicus, it is sufficient here 
to quote the epitaph, which may yet be read upon his monument, 
in the " Johanneskirc7ie," in Thorn, and which was conceived by 
himself for the purpose it now serves : — 

" Non parem Pauli gratiam requiro, 
Veniam Petri non posco, sed quam 
In crucis ligno dederas latroni 
Sedulus oro." 



48 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

port for the Christian faith. But how are these 
differences to be explained ? 

In the one case as well as in the other, that which 
appears as the last was the first : the cause appears 
as the consequence. The same will apply to the 
theory of the world. The Deistic theory, which 
would fain be regarded as the consequence of the 
Copernican system, was first in point of time. Eot 
until man had succeeded in barring out from his 
creation, the living God, whose almighty word up- 
holds as well the tiny atom as the huge globe, and 
had relieved him from the cares of the world in a 
" dolce far niente" — not until man was willing to 
acknowledge the infinite only, while he denied that 
He took finite nature upon himself, was he able to 
regard the universe as a machine; and to praise as 
highly sublime and alone worthy of the Infinite 
Being, that monstrous, or as Fr. Baader calls it, 
" tedious" idea of the heavens, as an endless, mono- 
tonous repetition of suns, planets, and moons, with 
their inhabitants, "tout comme chez nous." Thus 
in a convenient yet noble manner would man free 
himself from all belief in an incarnate God, and 
from all the uncomfortable attendants of such a 
belief. Starting out from the heliocentric theory, 
which well deserves the reception it has received, 
but forgetting that in the sphere of spirit other laws 
obtain than those of mere magnitude and distance ; 
and that, notwithstanding the correctness of that 
theory, the earth in another — in a religious — respect, 
may be a central and important point in the universe, 
man fell to heaping worlds upon worlds, and solar 



DEISM AND PANTIIEISM. 49 

systems upon solar systems, taking away in geomet- 
rical progression from the religious significance of 
the earth, just as he swelled the number and magni- 
tude of the systems scattered through space. From 
Sirius, the earth appeared as scarcely worth namiug, 
and by the time the nebulae were reached, it had 
entirely vanished. When the mind became giddy 
amid those infinite heights, and the heart felt over- 
whelmed, desolate and forsaken, that was called 
devotion ! The prodigious discoveries of the cele- 
brated W. Serschel, completed the vast and dreary 
prospect ; but he himself, though retaining as much 
as was possible the prevailing notions of his age, 
found it necessary, gradually, to give them up, as he 
made an increase in discoveries not in harmony 
with those fundamental notions. But to 6r. H. von 
Schubert especially, belongs the praise of having (in 
his ingenious work, Die Urwelt und die Fixstewie) 
followed out in an independent manner, the path 
trodden by Herschel, and " given the old song new 
words;" while he pointed out the way to more pro- 
found and comprehensive views, according to which 
our little earth, together with the breathing dust 
which inhabits it, may boldly and significantly 
oppose itself to the huge masses of all the worlds." 
Directly opposed to the theory of the world we 
have just been considering, is another, which recently 
has been seeking to gain prominence in the world, 
and to which from the Biblical stand-point, we are 
compelled to offer no less decided objections. vYe 
shall call it, both from its basis and its nature, the 
Pantheistic theory. 
5 



50 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

The former theory over-values the results of astro- 
nomy, and claims too much for that science; the 
latter contemns or ignores both the science and its 
results. The former is governed by a religious, or 
rather, an irreligious motive ; the latter equally so. 
There the heavens are over-estimated ; here the 
earth. In the one case the earth, when opposed to 
the universe, vanishes entirely; in the other, the 
universe retreats into the back-ground before the 
significance of the earth. The one loses itself in an 
imaginary infinity of worlds; the other feels at home 
and comfortable, only when upon its own earth, and 
devours a whole heaven of heavens at one specula- 
tive meal. The one delights to represent the earth 
and its inhabitants as small and insignificant as may 
be, so that the Lord of heaven and earth need have 
but little care for his creatures ; and man have the 
consciousness of being but little regarded by Him 
whose eyes are as a flaming fire, and who trieth the 
hearts and the reins. The other delights to cele- 
brate the deification of the human mind as the only 
and highest soul of the world, and thus add a signi- 
ficant page to the glory of man. The approach of 
the venerable Copernicus, is, under such circum- 
stances, very inopportune; and the sublime views 
of a Plerschel, a Bessel, a Strvne, and a Madler, are 
exceedingly annoying. Hence the results of sublime 
and laborious research are persistently ignored, and 
man chooses rather to interpret the world " a priori." 
i The Pantheistic theory of the world stands in just 
as glaring contradiction to the peculiar doctrines of 
Christianity, as does its antagonistic theory, the 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 51 

Deistic one. The one so peoples the universe, that 
it is impossible that the blessed God should become 
man ; and thus wholly avoids Christianity. The 
other so depopulates it that man alone is God ; that 
is, the highest unfolding or manifestation of Deity. 
The teachings of the Bible in regard to an incarnate 
God, are well enough, so long as they heap honor 
upon man ; so long as they are regarded as involun- 
tary prophetic intimations, in which the Divine self- 
consciousness of humanity begins to dawn ; so long 
as they constitute a bold fiction, in which the soul 
of the world unconsciously shadows forth the history 
of its own development. Thus are sin and redemp- 
tion, personality and immortality, the resurrection 
and judgment, heaven and hell, all at once, and 
without effort, done away with. The earth alone is 
the place where God reveals himself, the favored 
spot of his highest manifestation ; beyond it no 
trace of spirit is to be found; and he must be a child 
or an idiot who would seek for reasonable beings, 
spirits and angels, beyond this world. 

Deism, however, is still content to believe in the 
existence of angels — its vision is unclouded, so long 
as we keep at a distance with those abortions of a 
gloomy superstition: such as fallen angels, spirits 
of the abyss, and princes of darkness. Yea, it even 
flatters its disciples, with the confident expectation, 
that they who are here, "half beast, half angel," 
shall, so soon as they have " shuffled off this mortal 
coil," their animal nature, become complete angels, 
and be permitted, with powers of infinite perfecti- 
bility, to rove at will through the immensity of 



52 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

creation, gathering fresh acquisitions and new de- 
lights in each world. Pantheism, indeed, does not 
beguile itself with any such childish hopes and fan- 
tastic dreams ; but it also looks upon all the Bible 
has to say about celestial worlds and inhabitants of 
light, angels and champions of heaven, dominions, 
principalities, and powers, as mere silly childish 
legends. 

Therefore, in order that the stars of the firmament 
be not wholly useless, they are made to serve as gas- 
lights at large, whose only purpose is to light up the 
birth-place of an ever-unfolding God ; to deck a 
brilliant saloon in which the human mind may dis- 
port itself, and from whose countless glittering 
mirrors man may see the reflection of his own glory; 
and lest he lose himself therein, this showy saloon 
must be of only a moderate size and capacity. With 
all this, however, the Pantheistic theory arrives at 
such an impious denial of the true God, or indeed a 
God at all, that Deism looks fair and religious, com- 
pared with it. 1 

1 It is Michelet who (in his Vorlesungen uber die Personlichkeit 
Gotten und die Unsterblichkeit der Seele oder die ewige Personlich- 
keit des Geistes, Berlin, 1841) has most perspicuously and unre- 
servedly advanced this theory of the world. The stars are to 
him, " nothing further than bare rocks of light scattered throughout 
the seas of the heavens (p. 227), and the whole idea of the starry 
heavens represents merely " that of abstract, unchangeable dura- 
tion, as the vague, lifeless manifestation or image of eternity" (p. 
228). " The earth surpasses the sun in dignity/' and " it is evi- 
dent beyond contradiction, that the highest and most complete 
manifestations in sidereal nature, are not to be sought beyond the 
sphere of our own planet, and no less, that no trace of spiritual 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 53 

Thus, then, is there a complete antagonism be- 
tween Deism and Pantheism, in all their funda- 
mental views; and that portion of Divine truth 
which one receives — in the one case, of a God with- 
out and beyond the world ; in the other, of a God 
within and about the world — that portion of truth 
is an exceedingly bitter draught for the other. Such 
fundamentally different views have not failed to 
give rise to fierce collisions and conflicts between 
these parties, in which vehemence, passion, and 

life is to be found apart from this same terrestrial world" (p. 230) 
and like instances. It will be no matter of surprise, after what 
we have already said of Deism and Pantheism, that such a 
thoroughly Pantheistic theory of the world should sympathize 
in some points with the true Christian theory nevertheless. Thus, 
we find expressions of Michelet himself, to which, from the 
Biblical stand-point, we can subscribe, and which we can also 
defend, as, for example, when he asserts " that the earth, if not 
the sensible, is at least the spiritual centre of the system ;" or 
when he says: "The extent of the space is a matter of no moment 
for the revelations or workings of Spirit, which often delights 
in crowding the greatest wonders in the least amount of space." 
But also modern philosophy in general, even where it has not yet 
strayed into open or virtual Pantheism, has all along shown an 
evident desire to detract as much as possible from the significance 
of the heavens in opposition to that of the earth. Comp. Scrol- 
ling' s Sendschr. an Eschenmayer, in der Zeitschr. von Deutschen 
und fur Deutsche, 1812, and Hegel's Schlussbemerkung zu der 
Kosmologie des Anaximander, in his GescJi. der Philos., p. 207. 
The latter aims directly, among other things, at showing the 
modern view of the vastness and infinity of the stellar worlds, to 
be a laughable and absurd fancy of narrow minds, as for ex- 
ample, when he would designate them to be " merely a luminous 
eruption, no more to be wondered at than an eruption upon the 
human skin, or than swarms of flies" {Vorlesung iiber Naturphilos, 
I, p. 92, comp. p. 4G1). 
5* 



54 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

mutual contempt, have been very often exhibited. 
Especially has Pantheism — as was natural for it to 
do, since it is the philosophy of pride and self-exalt- 
ation — cast the most biting sarcasm and bitter con- 
tempt upon the " antediluvian theologians," as it 
characteristically designates its antagonists, holding 
itself to be the flood which has swept away all 
rubbish from the province of knowledge, and re- 
newed the world of reason. 

But it would now appear almost as if a time of 
peace was to follow the fierce conflicts between these 
antagonists ; and that henceforth they are to be 
allied in common hostility to Christianity. David 
Strauss, even in his thoroughly Pantheistic " Glau- 
benslehre" has refrained from the customary haughty 
and contemptuous expressions of opposition to the 
results of natural science ; and, taking his stand 
beside Ballenstedt and BretscJineider, has not blushed 
in the attempt to renew the old "hue and cry" 1 of 
the champions of Deism — the offspring of lament- 
able ignorance, and want of science on the part of 
the latter — in regard to an evident contradiction be- 
tween the sublime results of natural science and the 
absurd Biblical history of the creation. And as in 
theory, so also in practice have the Pantheists of our 
day, who have heretofore kept aloof and by them- 
selves, become enlisted in the thickly crowded bat- 
talions of the friends of progress — formerly vul- 
garly denominated Deists and Rationalists — in order 
to wage with them a common warfare against the 
Christian Church. 

1 Cump. K. v. Raumer, KreuzzUge, vol. I. 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 55 

The fact of such an alliance, which at the first 
view seems so strange, may easily be explained, 
however, on a more careful consideration of the 
circumstances of the case. Looking at the matter 
in a merely practical point of view, the case is not a 
new one. Pilate and Herod became friends; the 
Pharisees and Sadducees joined themselves together. 
Theoretically considered, Astronomy in particular 
seems to be bringing about such an alliance. 

Pantheism is wholly unable to retain the pre- 
tended strong-hold of its ideal construction of the 
universe, against the daily accumulating results of 
astronomy which so irresistibly besiege it. Indeed, 
a still larger share of the most approved self-com- 
placency than has yet been exhibited by Pantheism, 
which, it must be confessed, has not come behind in 
this respect, is demanded, in order that at the pre- 
sent day, and in the face of the wondrous revelations 
of astronomy, the infinity of glittering worlds on 
high, should be persistcntl}' accounted as "bare 
rocks of light scattered throughout the seas of the 
heavens," or even, as "the eruptions" produced by 
a transient scarlet fever of the skies. It will, ac- 
cordingly, at length be forced to abandon the illu- 
sion also, that man is the only manifestation of spiri- 
tual life in the universe. But this it can well afford 
to do, as man will still have the consolation, that he, 
the philosopher, stands alone as the highest embodi- 
ment of the soul of the world or universe, even 
though the same soul, no matter, be embodied in a 
similar and befitting manner in the worlds on high. 

But Deism, on the other hand, overthrows itself 



56 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

in its attempts to swell to infinity the greatness and 
number of the celestial worlds, and tumbles, uncon- 
sciously, headlong into Pantheism. Its grand and 
only aim is to get rid of prophecy, revelation, mira- 
cles, and the fact of the incarnation upon the earth. 
Hence it delights in piling suns upon suns, and sys- 
tems upon systems of Milky Ways ; vainly imagin- 
ing that with each step of its progress toward in- 
finity, the absurdity of giving credit to miracles and 
revelations of the Bible, becomes more clearly mani- 
fest. But so soon as it has wrought itself up to the 
huge idea of the absolute infinity of creation, 
logical sequence of thought must carry it, unless 
bounds be set to logic just where it begins to over- 
turn previous and cherished views, fully within the 
limits of Pantheism. For, connected with the idea 
of the infinity of space, and of the worlds which fill 
it, comes the correlative idea, hardly to be evaded, 
of the eternity of time. But when once we admit 
the infinity of space and the eternity of time, the 
idea of the creation, and along with it, the idea of a 
personal Creator, superior to both time and space, 
glides away from our minds and leaves no trace 
behind. 

It is clear that a mutual approach and alliance on 
the part of two such antagonists, differing at the 
first, "toto ccelo," cannot take place upon the basis 
of the Scriptural truth they still respectively retain 
(in the one case, that God exists beyond the world; 
in the other, that he is present in the world). Nay 
rather, it is to be effected only by their mutually 
giving up what is peculiarly in accordance with the 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 57 

Bible (in the one case, the Scriptural idea of the 
creation; and in the other, the Biblical view of the 
high and special significance of man and his history). 

Such, then, has been the position taken by astro- 
nomy, or rather, the parasite speculation which 
has attached itself thereto, to feed upon it, and con- 
vert all its wholesome lessons into hostile attacks 
against the Christian faith ; and that noble science 
which above all others should be an unceasing song 
of praise to the glory of the Creator, has been de- 
graded to the purpose of casting into the dust, not 
only the precious jewel of Divine love and conde- 
scension, his incarnation in the person of Christ, but 
also, the majestic crown of his greatness and glory, 
his creative dignity. 

Let us now inquire how theology, which has been 
set up as the guardian of the dishonored sanctuary, 
has regarded the results of astronomy, and also the 
perversion and misuse of them on the part of Deism 
and Pantheism. 

It is well known that .Rome anathematized the 
system of Copernicus, and persecuted it in the 
person of Galileo ; nor is it so very long since that 
system was first allowed to be taught from the pro- 
fessor's chair. Protestant theology, also, has barely, 
with severe struggles, overcome the religious diffi- 
culties which presented themselves with that system. 1 

1 One of the last reactionary movements of pretended theologi- 
cal origin, against the triumphing Copernican theory, is to be 
noticed in a book published in the year 1740, by Hensel, Rector 
of the Hirschberg Gymnasium. The significant title of the work 
runs thus: " CosmotJiearia Ublica restaurata ; or, The new Mosaic 



58 DEISM AND PANTHEISM. 

A secret reluctance to absorb into its theory of the 
world, and adapt to itself, the heliocentric doctine, 
and the results of later astronomical investigations 
generally, has propagated itself in the Christian 
mind, even down to the present day. 1 This disposi- 
tion, which is founded upon supposed irreconcilable 
differences between the facts of science and revela- 
tion, is now very rarely to be met with, and is to be 
found prevailing almost exclusively among certain 
Christian Gnostics, who think that they can or 
should, in the tranquillity of the Christian spirit, 
withdraw themselves from the tumult and strife of 
unsettled opinions. 

system of the World ; in which it is to be satisfactorily proven, 
upon sacred and natural grounds : 1st, that the earth stands still ; 
2d, that the sun moves ; 3d, that the rapid movement of all the 
stars is not impossible or contrary to reason, but in harmony with 
the "principles" of the latest physical science; 4th, that the 
celestial bodies are indeed of great size, but not of such im- 
mense magnitude as they are generally represented to be in 
modern times ; 5th, that the fine small planets have a periodical 
revolution peculiar to themselves, from which the " retrogra- 
datio" arises and may easily be understood ; together with plates 
to the praise of the great Creator, and the defence of the truth, 
designed for the profit of all, but especially that of youth engaged 
in study, written by . . . etc." But subsequently, in the year 
1806, there was published in Paris: Merrier star Vimpossibiliie 
des systemes de Copernic et de Newton, (Comp. Madler, astron. 
Briefe, p. 40). 

1 In addition to the chief passage, Joshua 10 : 12-14, it has 
been attempted to show that the following passages also, are not 
reconcilable with the Copernican system : Ps. 93 : 1 ; 96 : 10 ; 
104 : 5 ; Eccles. 1:5; Is. 34 : 4 ; Judg. 5 : 20. It is hoped the 
kind reader will forgive us for not consuming time to show, that 
these passages of Scripture prove no more in opposition to, than 
in favor of, the heliocentric doctrine. 



DEISM AND PANTHEISM 



59 



Bat theologians as a whole, on the other hand, 
have ceased to agitate the question of a contradiction 
between theology and astronomy. Whether they 
have completely solved the connection and relation 
of these two sciences, i. e., brought their respective 
theories of the world into full accord, into one har- 
monious whole, without constraint or diminution of 
right on the part of either science ; whether they 
have removed all difficulties which honest doubt or 
careless unbelief may have taken occasion, with or 
without reason, to draw from astronomy, is a matter 
not to be so confidently affirmed, however well the 
subject has been treated by other pens, 1 that remarks 



1 Comp. the writings of Fried, von Meyer, pertaining to this 
subject, in his Blattern fur hbhere Wahrheit, II, 4 seq. ; IV, 354 
seq. VIII, 342 seq.; the small work by J. P. Lange, Das Land der 
Herrlichkeit, written in such a warm and glowing style ; further, 
the work of the brilliant writer and eloquent English divine, 
Thos. Chalmers, Discourses on the Christian Revelation, viewed in 
connection with Modern Astronomy ; also, the treatise by T. Milner, 
another English divine, a work, however, which has not come 
into our possession: Astronomy and Scripture, or some illustra- 
tions of that science, and of the solar, lunar, stellar, and terres- 
trial phenomena of Holy Writ, London, 1843. Comp. also, the 
profound work of E. A. von Schaden, Theodicee, vol. I. (under the 
special title, Orion, oder uber den Bau des Himmels), Carlsr. 1842, 
in which he attempts to represent the Christian and the Astro- 
nomical theories of the world in absolute harmony, by giving 
them both a more profound cast ; a book, however, of which we 
are sorry to say, that we have not been able to adopt its profound 
speculativo-gnostic views : and finally, the in many respects ex- 
cellent treatise by Aug. Ebrard, Die Weltanschauung der Bibel 
und die Natunoissenschaften, in the third year of a periodical by 
this scholar: Die Zukunft der Kirche, Frankf. u. Zvrch. 1847. 
In the sphere of dogmatic theology, J. P. Lange {positive Dog- 



60 DEISM AND PAHIHIISM. 

which so peculiarly apply to the subject iu hand, 
should be looked upon as useless, or as from the out- 
set unwarranted. 

matik, Heidelb. 1851) enters most largely into a comparison of 
the revelation of the Scriptures with the results of natural 
science, and in that of exegetical investigation, Fr. Delitzsch 
img der Genesis . L :-:•/:. 1852 . The talented work of J. 
Ricbt:: Leirz. 1850, seq., thus far 3 vols.), 

which also promises to treat of this subject, has not vet progressed 
eo far. 



CHAPTER THIRD. 

A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE COSMOS. 

Universal History, or the History of the World, 
as it is generally understood, contemplates and com- 
prehends the total earthly development of the human 
race, and estimates single facts according to their 
general significance and influence. All that is acci- 
dental and without influence, every merely vegeta- 
tive or instinctive manifestation of life, is therefore 
excluded from the sphere of its contemplation ; and 
it forbids, on the other hand, any division, dismem- 
berment and separation to take place in the total 
organism of the development. On the contrary, it 
demands the closest examination of all the facts and 
phenomena, which to any extent may have had 
influence upon the direction, progress and results of 
the total development, which have had any bearing 
upon the education and advancement of the human 
race. 'No nation that has had its peculiar task to 
perform, and has held an important, influential 
position ; no time which has left behind traces of its 
footsteps ; no occurrence which has hastened or re- 
tarded the stream of the development, or has given 
to it a new and different direction ; no 'person who 
has in a measure ruled his age or has advanced its 
interests in any respect; no effort of the human 
mind which has cleared the way for a further de- 
velopment, or has called it forth, may be disregarded; 
6 (61) 



62 A UNIVERSAL HISTORY 

all means and resources, all furtherances and hin- 
drances in the movement, science and art, commerce 
and industry, religion and politics, and whatever 
else has influenced the indefatigable mind of man 
striving ever after higher advancement, after more 
universal sway, are subjects for this science: — to 
inquire into all these, as to their beginnings and 
progress, their causes and effects, their means and 
ends, to compact them all into an unique, articulate 
organism, and to comprehend them in their unity 
and polarity, their reciprocal and antagonistic influ- 
ences, is the irremissible duty and task of the histo- 
rian. History is the physiology, and not the anatomy 
of the past. 

Thus does this science indeed appear as the 
grandest and most comprehensive of all human 
sciences ; and the inquiring mind of man finds in 
the study of it a subject beyond measure worthy of 
his highest powers. "With good reason, therefore, 
may we call it Universal History, or the History of the 
World. All other sciences, be it God or man, the 
state or the church, nature or art, in some of 
their relations, which is chosen as the subject of 
special investigation, must begin with this science; 
must enrich themselves and widen their intellectual 
horizon by means of its labors and results. It desires 
to grasp and understand the whole earth, the whole 
human race, all times which have swept over the 
face of the earth, a complete world in respect to time 
and space, a universe of life and action. 

And yet how small, with all its astonishing mas:- 
hitude and fulness, is the province of knowledge 



OF THE COSMOS. 63 

which such a universal history would comprehend ! 
how meagre and contracted does it appear, with all 
its immeasurable extent, when we apply a higher, a 
yet more comprehensive rule of measurement, the 
principle of which, also, lies concealed in the human 
mind ! 

Is then our earth the universe in a proper sense? 
is it the world which contains all life ? are its boun- 
daries the boundaries of all time and space? is the 
human mind which rules and inhabits the earth, the 
only manifestation of a free, personal spirit, a spirit 
creating history, amid all the creatures of God? and 
is there no space beyond the earth for the swelling 
tides of spiritual activity, for the movement and 
development of self-conscious life ? 

Or, if we be compelled to say that such cannot be 
the case, are the operations and movements of other 
worlds and domains of life, of no significance or 
interest to us? Does the history of what is beyond 
the earth, of supra - mundane beings, take place 
wholly without reference to our history, or the re- 
verse ? or does no superior or subordinate, no recip- 
rocal and influential relation exist between them? 
do the different members of the universe hold their 
position beside each other wholly devoid of meaning, 
without a higher unity, without being united to- 
gether as a complete organic whole ? Is there not 
rather a higher end attained by the design and 
special functions of the individual members, some- 
what as the special purpose and office of the single 
members of the body serve the design of the whole ? 

Indeed, were it so — had beings existing beyond 



64 A UNIVERSAL HISTORY 

this earth no reference to us, were there no essential 
relation between them and us — then would the eager 
research of the inquiring mind, which carries the 
venturesome ship of thought beyond the boundaries 
of mortal time and space, be a mere ignoble and 
censurable curiosity; for the desire to investigate 
and comprehend what does not concern us, what 
has no reference at all to us, or to our position and 
duties in life, deserves not to be called a thirst for 
knowledge, but much rather a mere vain curiosity. 
Then would the astronomer who turns his telescope 
towards the worlds on high, and the profound thinker, 
far from content with searching into earthly things, 
and also the divine, ever inquiring of the Scriptures 
concerning the future, and seeking to quench at its 
pure fountain his thirst after knowledge, faith and 
hope — then would these all deserve, not esteem and 
approbation, but disapproval and censure ; then 
would those nameless longings after a precious and 
blessed, though distant and yet unknown abode, 
which stir in our inmost bosom, as we, full of myste- 
rious earnests of a great future, gaze on the wide- 
spread glory of the nocturnal heavens, be but the 
sentimental conceits of silly fools. 

There is — such is the answer of a deep-felt neces- 
sity which we cannot ignore — there is a history other 
than that of our earth, and that history has essential 
connection with our history; both, at least in the 
grand points of their mutual development, touch and 
penetrate each other ; the last, the final goal of their 
mutual strivings and movements, is a common one, 
a grand and all-comprehending one. There is a 



OF THE COSMOS. 65 

universal history, or history of the world, which in 
a higher and a truer sense deserves that name, than 
that history whose ohject is to grasp all the develop- 
ments and tendencies of the human race inhabiting 
this atom earth, and arrange them, under one point 
of view, in scientific order and harmony. 

Just in the degree that the human mind, by means 
of its innate, its noble tendency toward freedom, 
becomes independent of this clod, from which man 
must earn his bread in the sweat of his brow, — just 
in the same degree does it enlarge and expand its 
world, and seek intellectually to take possession of 
it all, to penetrate it with its powers of knowledge 
and make itself at home therein. A quiet home 
with its sorrows and joys, a workshop with its labor 
and toil, or the village of his birth, is to many an 
one, all his world. And the history of this home or 
this village is his history of the world, his universal 
history. 

But under the hand of more favorable culture, the 
vision of the aspiring mind extends, and its horizon 
retreats ; its world and its history of the world, both 
within and without, become ever more extensive and 
comprehensive ; it would grasp, search into and 
fathom the origin and existence of everything sig- 
nificant offered by the east, the west, the north, or 
the south; by the heights or depths of the earth, by 
the past or the present of the human race; — and 
soon, very soon do the boundaries of its subjective 
world begin to coincide with the boundaries of the 
objective, the sublunary world ; it eagerly craves the 
knowledge of that history of the world which is 
6* 



bb A UNIVERSAL HISTORY 

none other than the universal history of all human 
and earthly developments. 

But is the inquiring mind now at ease and satis- 
fied, when in its hold eagle flight it has reached the 
ends of this sublunary world, when, as it were, it has 
taken the wings of the morning and reached the 
uttermost parts of the sea ? Does it bow willingly 
and unconditionally to the stem command: "Thus 
far— but no further?" 

Never. And just in that does the mind prove its 
origin and its high destiny, its dominion over time 
and space ; and although bound to time and space, 
and hindered at every step by the bonds of the flesh, 
never in the infinite sphere of time and space does 
it permit limits to be set to its inquiries and its con- 
quests. 

The student of nature beholds through his micro- 
scope^ whole world of life in every drop of the ocean, 
upon each leaf of the forest. But this does not 
satisfy him. He appropriates to himself something 
from each of these worlds, as a preliminary posses- 
sion, with the bold assurance that he shall ever more 
and more be able thoroughly to explore them, even 
in their most hidden details, and bring them under 
his own sway. Putting aside the microscope, he 
grasps the telescope, in order to review, examine 
and explore all those countless worlds on high, 
which at an inconceivable distance spangle the vault 
of heaven, and each one of which mocks his petty 
earth in magnitude, in fulness and might of cosmical 
forces. 

The historian, who deals not with nature directly, 



OE THE COSMOS. 67 

but rather with the developments of mind therein, 
and the influence of mind thereupon, summons all 
nations and all times which have left behind them 
traces of their existence, to pass before his sagacious 
and discriminating mind ; in order to construct from 
the ten thousand events, developments and changes 
which have occurred, a unique, life-like image of the 
history of his own race ; in order to determine the 
work that race has to perform, its destination, and 
its present nearness to or distance from that destina- 
tion. 

But he also catches the glories of the worlds ahove, 
and has kindled within his bosom the hope, the 
anticipation, that they also may have a history; 
that this history is not without interest to the human 
mind, that perhaps many a problem in the develop- 
ments of this sublunary world which he cannot 
solve, may there find its solution. A John von 
Milller, whose large and comprehensive mind grasped 
the total development of the human race, with a 
depth of insight and a clearness of understanding 
which few historians have attained to, felt far from 
being satisfied with what he had accomplished ; his 
lofty and aspiring mind yearned for a more grand, a 
more comprehensive, a higher history; he eagerly 
longed for the time, when, as he said, he might 
study the universal history of the solar system. 

John von Midler was a Christian man. That hope 
he cherished sprang from his assurance of that eter- 
nal life, in which our faith shall become sight, and 
our present meagre attainments be perfected and 
exalted to the all-comprehending completeness of 



68 A UXIVEE5AL EI5T0RT 

knowledge ; in which all problems of the microcosm 
and of the macrocosm shall be solved, and we see 
face to face, and know even as we are known. 

But is that knowledge which he believed awaited 
him only in the clear vision of the future, wholly 
beyond the horizon of the present life I Is it true, 
then, that we cannot here see into those mysteries, 
though it be but as through a glass darkly? — at 
least, so long as we remain children in the know- 
ledge of the real nature of all things, mav we not 
still be wise, as children, and have childish thoughts, 
childish views, and childish expectations : Shall 
then, with respect to those mysteries, even the 
meagre boon of this short life — to know in part — be 
denied ue \ 

U AU tilings are yours,' says the apostle; but he 
wisely adds, " but all things are not expedient." Are 
we then profited by knowing in part? are such child- 
ish thoughts and views of anv service ? Is it not 
rather useless, foolish and wrong, to expend time 
with them, since we can arrive at no certainty of 
knowledge by such means, since we can thus scarcely 
avoid misconstructions, distorted conceptions, and 
even positive errors ? 

AVe reply with another question. Shall we deny 
the child, because it is unable to fathom in their 
inmost nature; the world and the things that are 
therein, and to comprehend them in their various 
relations and their manifold indications, — shall we 
on this account deuy the child eveiy thoughtful and 
inquiring contemplation of these things, every en- 
deavor to understand them so far as it can, or so far 



OP THE COSMOS. 69 

as its faculties will permit, and every attempt to 
explain them after its own manner ? Shall we not 
grant it the privilege of enriching the little world of 
its thoughts and opinions, of widening its sphere of 
vision, even at the risk of one-sided, distorted and 
ridiculous conceptions being taken up, over which it 
will itself laugh in later years ? "What would other- 
wise become of, or how else should we secure, the 
education of its mental faculties, and its fitness for 
the duties of maturer life ? 

If, then, some knowledge of the history of the 
universe is to be obtained, however fragmentary and 
inadequate that knowledge may be, and we inquire 
for the surest sources from which it is to be derived, 
these three alone present themselves ; philosophical 
speculation, the telescope of the astronomer, and the 
Bible. 

The human mind is possessed of prophetic powers ; 
— these are grounded in its divine origin ; for a 
divine breath of life dwells in man, a breath which 
was breathed into the form made from the dust of 
the earth, by the God of the spirits of all flesh. But 
since man, in the perversity of his will, has cut him- 
self off from the eternal source of his being, since 
now the finite mind of man is isolated from the infi- 
nite, the eternal mind, those prophetic powers are 
deprived of the only soil in which they can thrive, 
in which they can unfold their potential fulness and 
energy. Only vague, helpless conjectures, which 
grope around in the dark, remain within the power 
of man ; the offspring of his futile efforts to re-assert 
his lost destiny. And it was only when divine ful- 



70 A UNIVERSAL HISTORY 

ness again poured itself into the soul of man, when 
through faith and grace the broken band of union 
was renewed, and the dried-up stream was replen- 
ished from the fountain whence it originally took 
its rise — in the Prophets of the old and the new 
Covenant — only then did these prophetic powers 
reach a development at all worthy of their end — 
only then was the human mind able to rise, on the 
wings of prophetic inspiration, to those heights from 
whence it was permitted to survey the regions of 
knowledge beyond the reach of mortal vision. 

But what can mere philosophical speculation dis- 
cover here ? what can it bring to light ? The philo- 
sopher may indeed, by means of his innate prophetic 
powers — powers which have not, however, been 
developed so as to be successfully and efficiently 
employed — have, as it were, by inward necessity, a 
presentiment that there is something to be sought 
after, something to be learned ; but not a clear know- 
ledge of what it is, or how it exists. Speculation is 
merely an instrument — it Gannot derive from itself 
the material with which it would form a system of 
knowledge, but must receive it from without; it can 
at best deduce only the general from the particular, 
the wherefore from the what and the how. 

If speculation be, therefore, of any significance in 
general, as a means of gaining knowledge of the 
history of other worlds and the relations they sustain 
to us, it can be so only in the degree in which it 
abides true to the established views of experience, or 
the representations of revelation ; therefore, only so 
far as it makes the results of physical research or the 



OF THE COSMOS. 71 

data of revelation, the substratum of its reasonings, 
and thus deduces the unknown from the known, the 
general from the particular. It is clear, therefore, 
that speculation is at best unsafe, not to be relied on, 
and very prone to err. 

But the telescope also, however magnificent and 
astonishing its discoveries — which bid fair to be 
increased every day — can scarcely offer us anything 
considerable for our present purpose. The telescope 
points out only the material cosmical masses ; only 
the massive works of the creative mind, in their most 
general forms, relations and movements. But the 
individual is hopelessly lost from its view in the 
general, the small in the great, and the free acts of 
created beings in and on the worlds they inhabit; 
in short, all that begets, conditions, and forms 
history. 

But still, however, the results of astronomical 
research are not wholly without significance touching 
the investigation and knowledge of the history of 
the universe. They teach us the general bases on 
which this history comes to pass, the peculiar con- 
stitution of which may more or less affect the history 
itself. They give us the power to deduce upon the 
grounds of necessary and universally existing rela- 
tions between mind and matter, from a knowledge 
of the cosmical connections and relations of the dif- 
ferent worlds of the universe to each other, more or 
less reliable conclusions touching a corresponding 
condition and relation of the beings which inhabit 
them; on whose account, also, those worlds exist, and 
exist as they do. The earth exists for man's sake ; 



T- A UXIVEESAL HIS10ET 

its destiny is conditioned by his destiny, its develop- 
ment depends upon his development. We must 
assume a like connection between individual nature 
and the individual mind, as respects development 
and destiny, to exist in the heavenly worlds also. 
And wherever we perceive a vital connection, a 
reciprocal relation to exist between certain worlds, 
there we must also assume a corresponding relation 
or connection to exist between the inhabitants of 
these worlds — a relation chiefly of destinies, which 
the creative mind has affixed to them, but which 
they themselves must choose of their own accord, 1 
unfold in their own proper development— in history 
— and gradually work out a full and satisfactory 
manifestation. 



1 The created spirit can, indeed, determine itself to some other 
end than that for which it was appointed by the Creator in the 
beginning: since as 2. free creature, it must possess the power to 
will as it chooses. But when once its godless self-determination 
carries it in direct and inveterate opposition to God, so as to cut 
off all possibility of its returning to its original destiny, of its re- 
commencing the missed development with the divine potency of 
the beginning- when thus the bond of communion between the 
created spirit and the Creative Mind is irreparably broken, then 
also is the bond hopelessly severed, which bound that creature in 
living union and co-operation with all the creatures of God which 
have been true to their original destiny. The unholy creature shall 
at the end of its godless development-^/^ with its nature so 
far as that has been plunged into the abyss of iniquitv, through 
the power of the spirit itself over it, or without it, so far as by 
virtue of its divine constitution it is not capable of such a calam- 
ity-be separated from the organic and harmonious family of 
faithful creatures, who find their end and rest in God, and be 
doomed to hopeless perdition. 



OF THE COSMOS. 73 

But, notwithstanding, experience or empirical sci- 
ence is of little more use to us here than self- 
abandoned speculation — the united strength of both 
avails us little. Both speculation and empirical 
science lead us to imagine and take for granted the 
existence of a connected and widely-related history 
of the universe. But neither of them discloses to us 
the nature and the theme of this history ; neither of 
them has the power to bring before the discerning 
eye of the mind the concrete, individual forms, the 
living images of this history, and the changes which 
underlie it. And even could they do this, the rela- 
tion and reference of the details of the history to the 
whole, could ever be but a matter of vague and 
unsatisfactory conjecture, until the whole were come 
to pass, when the relations and reciprocal influences 
of the details might, indeed, be more clearly and 
satisfactorily discerned. 

But there still remains a third source of know- 
ledge. That is Divine revelation in the Scriptures. 
Here it is that the human mind is raised to the sub- 
lime heights of divine contemplation, and favored 
with the profound and penetrating vision of divine 
wisdom ; so that it, according to the measure of its 
actual need, on the one hand, and within the limits 
of the sphere into which the wisdom of God has 
raised it, on the other — may know and declare what 
were otherwise hopelessly withdrawn from its most 
s eager research, but what notwithstanding is whole- 
some, useful, and necessary to be known. 

Here at last may we hope to find disclosures con- 
cerning that history, the knowledge of which is so 
7 



74 A UNIVERSAL HISTORY 

foreign to our minds, but which yet so closely con- 
cerns us, that the thirst and ardent desire after it, 
manifested by the aroused mind, can neither be 
ignored nor appeased. For if this thirst, this ardent 
desire, is not an unnatural, sickly, feverish appetite ; 
if it is rather a thirst springing from the nature of 
mind itself; if it be true that there exist mutual 
relations and influences between our world and the 
worlds on high, between the human mind and cre- 
ated minds in other worlds ; if it be true that the 
developments and changes of our history stand . in 
important relations to the design and end of the 
universe : are those conditioned in a manner by 
these, and these by those, so that the peculiar posi- 
tion and mission of the earth and its inhabitants as 
assigned them by the Creator, cannot be learned or 
understood without a knowledge of these important 
connections — then may we reasonably expect that 
the Scriptures should have given us such disclosures 
as would meet the wants of this mortal life and the 
present state of our knowledge. 

Revelation is affected by none of the failings and 
defects of philosophy and science, none of the limi- 
tations and clogs which everywhere and on all sides 
meet speculation and empirical science in the inves- 
tigation of the history of the universe, and which 
mock all earnest endeavors of the ardent mind, and 
all calculations of inquiring reason. But it, too, has 
its limits — for prophecy is, as all human knowledge 
which is gained in connection with human means, 
still of a fragmentary nature ; it has its subjective 
limits, which are conditioned by the then existing 



OF THE COSMOS. 75 

capabilities and culture of the mind through which 
it comes ; it has also its objective limits, which are 
drawn by the illuminating, instructing, and fostering 
wisdom of the Spirit of God. 

Eot all, indeed, that curiosity might wish to know, 
is opened to the vision of the prophet ;but only that 
which is useful and practical. Nor was prophecy 
intended to satisfy depraved appetites, seeking after 
hidden wisdom, but only a real hunger and thirst for 
that spiritual nourishment which is just as necessary 
to the life of the soul as material food for the life of 
the body. But within the boundaries set to pro- 
phecy by its nature and design, by the wants and 
capacities of the mind, by divine foreknowledge 
and wisdom, it moves free, and untrammelled by any 
of the clogs which time and space impose on thought 
and investigation, themselves confined to time and 

space. 

In prophecy the human spirit, made in the image 
and likeness of God, is raised to the eternal source 
from whence it proceeded, and satisfied from the 
fulness of divine knowledge, a source superior to 
time and space, though still pervading both. Pro- 
ceeding from the present, its attainments and its still 
existing wants, which are both the result of past 
essential developments, and also the germs and con- 
ditions of all future developments— proceeding from 
the present, prophecy casts its divine glances back- 
ward into the past, and forward into the future; — 
proceeding from what is near at hand, yet bound to 
the distant by the unity of design and destiny exist- 
in g everywhere in the universe, it casts its glances 



76 A UNIVERSAL HISTORY. 

into the most remote regions of space. The facts of 
the past, though they lie buried under the rubbish 
of thousands of years, and have glided from the 
memories and tongues of men, yea, even though no 
mortal eye was witness to their occurrence, are re- 
vealed to its divine far-seeing eye. From what is 
seen it traces the origin of its being ; from the con- 
dition of the present it divines the developments of 
the past; for the latter lie veiled and hidden in the 
former, but the divine energy of prophetic vision 
makes them stand forth in clear light. In a similar 
manner does it disclose the essential developments 
of the future, so far as they are conditioned by the 
state of the present, and lie concealed in it, as so 
many germs yet undeveloped, as so many attempts 
and beginnings still unseen ; it also urges its way 
into the depths of space, borne by the really existing, 
if indeed not clearly perceived relation between what 
is near at hand and what is remote. 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 

THE BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, 
AND CONSUMMATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 

In the preceding chapter we have spoken of a 
Universal History of the Cosmos, founded npon 
unity of plan in all worlds, and striving towards a 
grand (einheitlichen) goal. That such a history 
should exist, has appeared to us more than probable. 
We have also found that, should there be such a 
history, neither philosophical speculation, nor empi- 
rical science, is capable of furnishing us with a 
knowledge of it. 

But we have named a third method of obtaining 
the desired knowledge — a method by which, if by 
any, we could be satisfied : study of the Scriptures 
as the archives of Divine revelation. We design to 
apply this method in the present chapter. Perhaps 
we may here be able to discover the elements and 
fundamental features of such a universal history. 

§ 1. Origin, Significance, and Character, of the Biblical 
History of the Creation, and the primeval Age. 

There stands on the very threshold of sacred writ, 
an account of the primeval history of earth and 
man, of such significance to theology and science in 
general, of such depth and breadth of meaning, of 
such fundamental importance and manifold reference, 
that, in these respects, few passages of Scripture can 
7* (77) 



78 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

be compared with it. It also offers us many grounds 
upon which to rest as we proceed with our present 
inquiry. Our investigations shall therefore proceed 
from it as a basis, and often return to it again during 
the progress of the inquiry. Let us first seek to 
gain clear views of the character and significance, 
the origin, position, and design of this record. 

We shall perceive at the first hasty glance, that 
this record naturally divides itself into two inde- 
pendent sections. The first, which includes Chap. 
1-2 : 1-3, treats of the origin of the universe, or, in 
the words of Scripture itself, of the origin of " the 
heavens and the earth and all the host of them." The 
second, extending from Chap. 2 : 4, to the end of 
Chap. 3, records the history of the fall of man, its 
causes and consequences, its preliminaries and its 
results. The latter part of the second section (the con- 
sequences and results of the fall) is given as a founda- 
tion for all future sacred history ; the former (the occa- 
sion, the causes, and the preliminaries of the fall) con- 
ducts this section back into the sphere of creation, 
whereby it sustains several points of contact, with the 
first or preceding section. For the present, we shall 
leave the relation of the two sections unexplained ; in 
order first of all to take into consideration some ques- 
tions which demand a general answer. (Comp. § 10.) 

The three first chapters of Genesis treat of what 
in part lies outside and beyond all human experience 
and recollection ; and on the other hand, of those 
first, quickly flown, morning hours of the history of 
the human race, the nature and circumstances of 
which have ever since that time been something 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 79 

foreign to and beyond all experience, observation, 
and analogy. 

Is the representation which is here presented us, 
of the nature and developments of those primeval 
times, poetry or philosophy, tradition or history? 

When 'poetry appears in the form of history, as 
the relation of something that has occurred, it is 
either pure poetry, the material of which is wholly 
drawn from the poet's own mind, or historical 
poetry, in which facts or events are moulded or re- 
constructed to serve a poetical end. In either case, 
the creation or new-creation of the poet is merely 
clothed in the drapery of history. But he makes no 
demand that his representation, as a whole, should 
be looked upon as one of real and substantial facts. 

Such a poem may proceed from a poet enlightened 
by the Spirit of God ; such a poem may therefore, 
when such is the case, be included in the Sacred 
Scriptures. As an example, we mention the Book 
of Job, in which historical or traditional material 
is poetically wrought into a canvass upon which to 
represent the wisdom and knowledge flowing from 
the depths of a soul enlightened by the Spirit of 
God. But our record offers nothing at all analogous. 
Here history is not the drapery or the canvass, but 
the body and the substance. The record evidently 
designs what is here represented in an historical 
form, to be regarded as real truth. In respect to the 
first section, this appears with indubitable certainty 
from its close, Chap. 2 : 3, where the hallowing of 
the Sabbath day, and the resting of God on the 
seventh day, are grounded on the six days' work of 



80 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE- WORLD. 

creation. There is no sense in this connection, 
unless both be looked upon as facts historically 
true. But neither will the second section pass for a 
mere creation of the fancy, as an unrestricted poem. 
Its whole conception, arrangement, and representa- 
tion, shows clearly that it was intended to communi- 
cate what is substantially and essentially true. Both 
sections are looked upon and applied as having this 
undoubted design, by all the subsequent books of 
the Bible which refer to them. 

We can, indeed, conceive of a poem which has 
other than merely poetical ends ; and which, to secure 
these ends, must be regarded as history, though in 
reality it be only poetry. May not (to keep as close 
to the account of the creation as possible) the fact 
that this record was to serve as the foundation of 
the law of the Sabbath, and that it arose in the giv- 
ing of that law, lead us to believe that such was the 
case here ? May not some Sage of Israel, with the 
noble design of recommending as divine that highly 
significant institution, and of establishing it among 
the people, have written the first chapter of Genesis 
as a poem, but have represented its contents as his- 
torical facts, in order thereby successfully to attain 
his object? 

Such a question can arise only so long as the 
writings, the history and the institutions of the Old 
Testament, are looked upon as of merely human 
origin — or an attempt is made so to regard them. 
But when we are forced to the conviction, by inward 
and outward necessity, by the witness of the Holy 
Spirit, as well as the results of our own investiga- 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 81 

tions, that another than the human mind — the mind 
of God himself, has presided over and wrought in 
these hooks and the history they contain ; we cannot 
hut at once repel such an inquiry with indignation 
and disdain. When we clearly perceive that the his- 
tory, teachings and prophecies of the Old Testament, 
all point to the incarnation of Christ, that in Him 
they find their end of fulfilment; then it follows 
directly that their truth must be fully attested and 
proven by the facts of Christ's life and death. The 
Mosaic history of the creation is the corner-stone of 
that temple which has been perfected and finished 
by the apostles of Jesus Christ. The divine struc- 
ture of Christianity cannot be founded upon a delu- 
sion : it would spurn a fraud as its basis. 

Philosophy ', just as poetry, is the peculiar creation 
of its author, but it differs in kind. Starting from 
the known, touching the origin, significance, and 
end of which, neither historical nor empirical re- 
search can satisfy us, it attempts to fill up the chinks 
and chasms in human knowledge — the voids in 
history and experience — by the agency of reflection 
and speculation; and is often so presuming as to 
ascribe unconditional certainty and credibility to the 
results of its erroneous reasonings. 

It has been thought that we should rather ascribe 
such an origin to our record, since really the origin 
of the world and the origin of evil, of which it would 
give an account, have ever been the foremost and 
most weighty problems of all philosophy and specu- 
lation. But apart from many other considerations 
which oppose such a derivation of the record, the 



82 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

fundamental position it holds with respect to the 
whole history of Divine revelations, and the history 
of redemption, and also the attestation it receives 
from the writings of the 2s~ew Testament, sufficiently 
assures us that we possess in it something else and 
vastly better than the mere abortions of a brain 
philosophizing on the problems of the world and of 
human life. 

Tradition is an account of something which has 
occurred, orally transmitted from generation to gene- 
ration. It has to do merely with pre-historical times, 
circumstances, and events. But so soon as eye- 
witnesses or cotemporaries begin to record in writing 
the events of the present for the use of future times, 
the historical age of a nation commences. What- 
ever in the accounts of former ages was not written 
by immediate eye-witnesses or cotemporaries, what- 
ever has for a longer or shorter time been transmitted 
from lip to lip, is Tradition. But such tradition 
may have a two-fold origin. It may either lead 
back, by an unbroken chain of transmission, to the 
times when what it delivers came to pass, so as to 
be the vehicle of historical recollections, however 
much these may be transformed, enriched, and 
adorned by the poetical vein of the nation's mind ; 
or the chain of transmission may be broken off, and 
the public mind in which dwells a no less universal 
'< horror vacui" than fruitful poetical faculty, have 
supplied the wanting links, have attached to actual 
events, or something which now exists, a poetical 
history of its own creation, touching the manner of 
their origin, which the next generation would un- 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 83 

suspectingly transmit as proper tradition, reaching 
back to the time of the events themselves. 

The articulate position of our record in connection 
With the history of all revelations, forbids us to re- 
gard it as tradition of this latter kind. We may, 
therefore, have no scruples in holding it to be tradi- 
tion of the kind first mentioned. Indeed, we must 
regard it, though it be forced to maintain the posi- 
tion and significance it possesses from being included 
among the records of the kingdom of grace, in some 
other way, as pure tradition, as a true recollection 
of primeval times; we must deny that any such a 
transformation has happened to it as would destroy 
the truth of its special teachings, its essential con- 
tents. But it may be tradition, and still answer all 
requirements. For though we may nowhere among 
other nations be able to find tradition in such purity, 
m such close harmony with the original facts: 
though it be not possible for any other nation to 
trace back a tradition, transformed by the lips of the 
people, decked with arbitrary poetical fancies, and 
garnished with philosophical speculations, to the 
pure historical account first started— yet may we, 
in case we must derive our record from tradition,' 
with great confidence maintain, with respect to it, 
both harmony with the original facts and integrity 
as a vehicle by which they have been transmitted to 
us. Let us not forget that we are here in a province 
where Divine Providence has presided in a special, 
ma striking manner; so that it cannot appear im- 
possible that a tradition, which was designed in pro- 
cess of time to be included in the Divine records, 



84 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

should have been preserved unchanged, under the 
supervision of the Spirit, down to the age of him who 
was called to incorporate it in the Sacred Scriptures, 
and thereby attach to it the Divine Sanction. But 
w-e are in no need of even such a supposition; we 
can, without hesitation, admit that the original tra- 
dition may have experienced many arbitrary or 
undesigned poetical additions or transformations, 
among the nation of Israel, and still ascribe to the 
written record, as it stands in Genesis 1-3, uncondi- 
tioned credibility and truthfulness. For we know 
that the men of God, to whom the composition of 
the Holy Scriptures was entrusted, were under the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that they may thus 
have been made competent to separate the true from 
the false, the genuine from the counterfeit, in those 
traditions which they were to receive as sources 
of knowledge in relation to the Divine counsel and 
history of redemption, and (we repeat it) thereby 
attach to them the Divine sanction. 

Our record maybe derived from tradition, but then 
the tradition it contains must of necessity be pure, 
unadulterated, or at least refined and purified — such 
a tradition as is one in essence with the proper his- 
tory of the Bible, and can be distinguished from it 
merely in this, that it comes from oral transmission 
of facts and not from the writings of cotemporaries. 
It may be tradition. But whether it really is tradition, 
whether the author of Genesis did in fact derive it 
from oral transmission, or whether he acquired its 
contents in some other way, from some other source, 
cannot as yet, indeed, be positively affirmed. 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 85 

But farther examination will lead us to answer the 
question before us affirmatively. Simple combina- 
tions of indubitable facts necessarily force us to this 
conclusion. The author of Genesis either found the 
substance of the account already in existence, or it 
was imparted to him by means of revelation. But 
the latter supposition is wholly untenable, since the 
traditions of all other nations, in the north and in 
the south, in the east and the west, whatever funda- 
mental differences there may be in their religious 
views, agree in so striking a manner, in respect to 
the substantial facts, and often even the minutest de- 
tails, with the representations of our record, that 
we cannot avoid referring all accounts to the same 
source. For it is wholly incredible that the other 
nations should have derived those features common 
to the traditions of all nations, from the Israelites ; 
neither can the author of Genesis nor any single 
Israelite have been the sole recipient of this record. 
We must assume the existence of a common source, 
from which both the Israelites and the other nations 
derived their accounts ; and this original source must 
pertain to a time when the human race yet retained 
its original unity, in which it was not yet divided by 
varieties of language or abode, by marked distinc- 
tions of race, or differences in civilization and reli- 
gion. The nations now isolated, must have derived 
such accordant recollections and traditions from 
those primeval times. According to the different 
spiritual channels through which this heritage of the 
Father's house was conducted, did it assume, on the 
lips of priests or people, manifold forms, but ever so 
8 



86 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

that the seal of the Father's house, the unity of its 
origin, remains indelibly enstamped upon it. In Is- 
rael only, the nation of revelations, did tradition re- 
tain its original form, or only here were means and 
abilities to be found capable of tracing it back to 
that form. 

But if we are forced to recur to the time when the 
tribes and peoples of the human race were still 
united, nothing prevents us, nay rather, many things 
compel us to go back still a few steps further, to the 
time of Noah, and from thence to the time of Adam. 
We believe we express what may well be assumed, 
and a more than probable conjecture, when we say 
that the contents of this tradition were propagated 
by oral communication from the earliest times down 
to the age of the author of Genesis. 

But our record contains, as we have already seen, 
two sections, each of which forms a distinct, well- 
rounded whole, with its own peculiar arrangement 
and representation of what is possessed by both in 
common. Does not this twofold character of the 
record lead us to infer that the tradition was duplex, 
and that hence it had a double origin V By no 

1 Such a view would fain be confirmed, from pretended or ap- 
parent contradictions between the two sections. I have shown 
in other places [Bertrdge zur VeriJieidigung und Begrundung der 
Elnheit des Pentateuches, Konigsb., 1844, I, p. 50-73 ; a,nd,Ei?iheit 
der Genesis, Berlin 1846, p. 2-14) that these pretended contra- 
dictions are of little account. It would lead us too far aside from 
our main object, and interrupt too much the progress of our work, 
to examine this matter at length, at the present time. It is, 
doubtless, true at the outset, that the author of Genesis as it now 
stands, though it be true that he came into possession of two dif- 



HISTORY OP THE CREATION. 87 

means. It can only, in the worst case, point to a 
double form of the original tradition, to a twofold 
circle of tradition at the time of the composition of 
Genesis ; but never to a duplex original source. The 
Israelitish tradition, at all events, found a proper cen- 
tral representative in Noah, and later again in Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even if those rays of light 
from primeval times had been in the meantime de- 
composed, by the prism of oral propagation, into 
circles of different color, yet must they have resolved 
themselves into unity again in Noah and in Abra- 
ham, though it were with the loss of a few shades, 
(which was indeed possible, but not necessary). 
Since that time different concentric, yea, even excen- 
tric circles, may again have been derived from the 
original tradition, but these may not, on this account, 
stand in irreconcilable contradiction with each other, 
or the genuine original tradition. But the unity of 
the original tradition may just as easily have been 
preserved intact. In the first case, the author of 
Genesis may have really drawn from two different 
circles of tradition, in order to fill out and complete 
the one from the other. The more deep and heart- 
felt his consciousness in this case, that he found only 
truth in both, or rather, that he took only truth from 

ferent records, or drew his materials from two different circles of 
tradition, saw no irreconcilable contradiction between them ; for, 
otherwise, he would have certainly composed their differences, or 
have confined himself alone to one of the sources of information. 
If the author of Genesis could adopt two accounts as mutually 
completing each other, it assuredly does not become us, even in 
the worst case, to doubt whether the two be reconcilable. 



88 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

them, so much the less would he have any motive 
for obliterating the duplex source of his materials. 
But, in the other case, it may easily be supposed that 
he himself formed two different groups, mutually 
completing each other, out of the different parts of 
the genuine and undivided tradition. 1 "We shall 

1 The case remains still the same, even though it be true, as 
Delitzsch latterly maintains {Auslegung der Genesis, Leipzig, 1852), 
that the two sections are not the offspring of the same pen, but 
the second the product of another author (the so-called completer 
of the work). It must be said in favor of the arguments used by 
Delitzsch, that they are altogether the fruit of legitimate criticism, 
with no intermixture of dogmatic improperties. They give the 
hypothesis touching a completion of the Mosaic Books by some 
other hand, such a shape, that there is no call for opposition to it, 
from the purely Biblical stand-point. They still accord to the 
Book of Genesis, and the Pentateuch in general, the fundamental 
position in respect to the history and doctrines of redemption, 
which is the indispensable condition of a correct apprehension of 
either — the position assigned them by the collector of the canon, 
which Christ and his Apostles confirmed, and which both the 
Jewish and Christian Church have ever acknowledged as their 
legitimate one. The Pentateuch still remains the basis of all the 
other Books of the Bible, and is preparatory to them, even though 
it did not all, without any exception, proceed from the pen of 
Moses, but rather, was completed by some one or two of Moses' 
cotemporaries, who remained subsequent to his death. Its whole 
contents are still Mosaic, since they are the offspring of the spirit 
and school of Moses. (According to Delitzsch, Moses himself 
wrote, as the Pentateuch itself shows, the portion of the law con- 
tained in Ex. 19 — 24, and several smaller sections of the books 
of the law, as indicated by Ex. 17 : 14 ; 34 : 27 and Num. 33 : 2. 
He also wrote, according to Deut. 31 : 9, the whole of Deuter- 
onomy, except its close. A priestly cotemporary of the law- 
giver, perhaps Eleazar, wrote the rest of the laws, and, adding 
them to the portions of the laws written by Moses himself, gave 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 89 

learn further on, in § 10, what may have led to such 
a grouping. 

§ 2. Continuation. 

From what has preceded, we have learned that the 
Biblical account of the creation and the primeval 
history of man, in Genesis 1-3, is derived from tradi- 
tion — from that tradition which was preserved by 
oral transmission, from the earliest times of the hu- 
man race, down to the time of the author of Genesis, 
and which was by him taken up, under the direction 
of the Spirit, and placed in the Holy Scriptures, as 
the foundation of all sacred histories and teachings, 
and thereby divinely sanctioned and approved. 

But just here a fresh, a weighty inquiry meets us, 
to which we are compelled to rep]y. In what way 
and by what means did the first framer of the tradi- 
tion attain to a knowledge of those occurrences which 
our account describes ? Part of it may, without 

the whole an historical foundation, through the composition of the 
Book of Genesis. A second cotemporary of Moses, of marked 
prophetic tendency of mind, completed the work of his priestly 
predecessor, by the addition of several matters of special import- 
ance in his view. He also more fully developed some portions of 
the work, revising others, and subjoined to the whole the Book 
of Deuteronomy, from whence he derived much of the information 
he possessed). It must be confessed that this hypothesis has 
much to claim our attention. Still, however, there are a few 
doubts and difficulties in regard to its correctness, which cannot 
be solved by what Delitzsch has thus far brought forward to 
establish and defend it. We shall refrain for the present, there- 
fore, from a decisive judgment, and await with anxiety his prom- 
ised more extended treatment of the subject. 
8* 



90 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

doubt, be referred to recollections of bis life and 
conscious experience on tbe part of the first man. 
But another part, and that which is particularly im- 
portant for the purpose we have in view, seems not 
to be referable to such a source. The whole first sec- 
tion, and part of the second, treats of times and con- 
ditions, of occurrences and developments, which were 
never witnessed by mortal eye, which lay outside 
and beyond all perceptions and recollections of man. 
Other means and powers were demanded in order 
to gain a knowledge of that pre-adamite history, than 
those which now lie within the power of man when 
investigating the past. 

We have these words from a highly respectable 
source: 1 "We take the account of the creation as 
it offers itself, for a statement of the knowledge the 
first man had, of what preceded his existence. But 
he may have acquired such knowledge, without the 
necessary interposition of a special revelation, if the 
then existing condition of the world lay as clear and 
transparent before his view, as the Bible leads us to 
believe it did. Just as, in our clay, the primeval his- 
tory of the earth is disclosed to the man of science, 
from the present constitution of the globe, would the 
then existing state of the world, which was clear and 
legible in all its relations to the first man, have 
resolved itself into a history of the origin of that 
world." "The account of the creation is offered, 
neither as the result of musings or reveries touching 
the origin of the world, to say nothing of scientific 
research, nor yet as a revelation compensating for re- 

1 Comp. Hofmann, Schriftbeiceis, Nordl 1852, I. p. 232-243. 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 91 

flection and investigation, but as an account of the 
transmitted contemplations or views of the first man." 

This view of the case assumes in the first place, 
that the conception of the history of the creation 
belonged wholly to a time preceding the fall of man : 
and next, that man possessed before the fall, what he 
has since lost, the ability to perceive, with a clear, 
penetrating and unerring glance, the essence of all 
created things, not only as to their existence, but also 
as to the history of their origin-, without being com- 
pelled as our modern students of nature "to break 
with the hammer and cut with the scalpel, in order 
to get at the core of things." " They were," as one 
says, 1 " transparent and plain to him, without any 
effort on his part." 

Let us first try the correctness of the second as- 
sumption. It appears to be legitimate and well- 
grounded from what the record (Chap. 2,) says of 
man and his original state. AVe there perceive that 
man was able, on the first view of the animal 
world as it passed before him, to give to each creature 
its proper name ; we further perceive, that his first 
glance at woman, just then created, revealed to him 
her origin, her nature, and her mission, with unmis- 
takable clearness and certainty. Is not this view 
of the case hereby sufficiently established and justi- 
fied ? Are we not warranted in the conclusion, that 
he who at the first glance perceived both the origin 
and mission of woman, as well as the nature and 
properties of the animals, must also have been capa- 
ble of understanding, in the same manner, the his- 

1 Fr. Delitzsch, Genesis, p. 49. 



92 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

tory of the origin of the heavens and the earth, of 
seas and mountains, of plants and animals ? It 
would, indeed, appear so. But if we examine the 
account (Chap. 1-3,) more closely, if we take into 
consideration all its points with that care and scrutiny 
which their importance demands, not separating in- 
dividual parts, but rather apprehending them in their 
organic relation to the whole, we shall immediately 
come to a different conclusion. 

A number of explicit disclosures of the text mili- 
tate against such a supposition. 

God left the naming of woman and the animals 
to man ; but He gave names to the heavens and the 
earth, to day and night, to the land and the sea. 
Wherefore such a distinction in the important act 
of giving names ? If the act of giving names was 
a revelation on the part of man, that is, an exhibi- 
tion of the knowledge he possessed of the nature of 
what he named, so likewise was the act of naming 
on the part of God, a revelation of God. And yet, 
" revelation is not to compensate for reflection and 
investigation on the part of man." Why then did 
not God leave the naming of those other objects to 
man, if he was capable of perceiving their nature 
and history by direct contemplation or intuition ? 

And did the qualification on the part of man to 
give names to animals, really and necessarily involve 
such a knowledge of them, as that whereby he could 
by direct contemplation apprehend not only their 
nature and manner of existence, but also their origin 
and previous development — not only their present 
subsistence, but also the manner of their origin? May 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 93 

not the former without the latter be regarded as a suf- 
ficient basis upon which to ground the naming of the 
animals ? But even this limitation will not meet 
the demands of the case. Among the animals to 
which man gave names, was the serpent also, for 
according to Chap. 2: 19, 20, he gave names to "all 
the beasts of the field." Man named the serpent at 
least, without having perceived and thoroughly under- 
stood its whole being, its position, and its significance. 
He named it, indeed, but still there was one part of 
its constitution that he did not understand — that it 
" was more subtile than any beast of the field which 
the Lord God had made." Had he from the first 
clearly and distinctly seen the liar and deceiver in it, 
which it afterwards showed itself to be, he would 
not so readily have listened to its deceptive words. 1 
But did man indeed at the first glance fully under- 
stand the nature of woman ? and not only her present 
nature, but also her origin in the past, and even her 
position in the future ? 

The former must be allowed ; whether or not the 
latter also, is still at least a question. 2 At all events, 
any positive conclusion that because man could un- 
derstand the origin and nature of woman, therefore 
he could also understand the origin and nature of all 
other creatures, with equal thoroughness and cer- 

1 The author would ask that objections to the views here ad- 
vanced might be withheld until after the perusal of \ 26. 

2 When we observe that Christ (Matt. 19 : 5) cites the words 
of the 24th verse, as the words of God, we shall be inclined, with 
Delitzsch {Genesis, p. 114) ,to regard them not as the words of 
Adam, but as the words of the narrator, intended further to 
develop what is said by Adam in the 23d verse. 



94 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

tainty, must be rejected as arbitrary and illegitimate. 
For the creation of woman was not, as that of all 
the other creatures, prior to the time of his own 
existence ; and although the very moment of her 
origin was during his sleep, yet the origin itself was 
of such a nature that he could not fail to divine it 
with certainty, without such faculties of universal 
knowledge. 

But we have express witness to the fact that the 
first man did not understand everything he was con- 
versant with, in its nature and origin. The tree of 
knowledge stood in the midst of the garden ; but 
man was not able himself to divine its nature and 
design. He knew not that he dare not eat of it, as 
he might of all the trees of the garden. God him- 
self had to point out the qualities of that tree, by 
revelation. Adam knew not that eating of that tree 
would be followed by death. He must be told so 
expressly by God himself. 

But, even allowing that man possessed before the 
fall, such a clear and penetrating glance, that his 
vision pierced to the inmost essence of all things — 
such a happy faculty of making combinations, that 
the knowledge of the world as it was then consti- 
tuted, would immediately transport him to the know- 
ledge of its origin — the text still offers much that 
cannot be explained ; it contains even then points, to 
the knowledge of which many could attain only by 
means of special revelation. 

We can, for example, on such a supposition, con- 
ceive even that man may have understood the series 
of the creations, and the number of the creative 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 95 

acts, from the character or arrangement of what was 
created ; but we can scarcely imagine how he could 
learn from what appeared before his eyes, the num- 
ber of the days of creation, and the actual distribu- 
tion of those eight acts of creation among the six 
days. But it is absolutely inconceivable how he 
could have learned, without revelation, though the 
world lay clear and transparent before him, of the 
blessing of the seventh day and its being hallowed 
as a day of rest for man. 

But if we proceed from an examination of the 
details, to the more general points which here come 
into consideration, we shall see far more clearly and 
distinctly the inadmissibility and erroneousness of 
such a view. 

Although God declared at the close of the six 
days' work of creation, that all he had made was 
good, "very good," still we soon discover that evil 
was already in existence. Man was designed to 
learn to know good and evil, without himself becom- 
ing sinful. Consequently, evil must have existed 
externally to man, which it was necessary for him to 
know and overcome. And from the very fact that 
his whole spiritual development, his self-determina- 
tion, his probation, his voluntary activity, in a word, 
his history should and must begin with the know- 
ledge and mastery of this evil — from this very fact 
we perceive with what significance, power, and all- 
pervading influence it bore upon man and his his- 
tory. The antagonism between good and evil, for 
the solution of which, man before all others must 
become acquainted with it, must be so universal and 



96 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

so real, as to pervade and affect the whole intricate 
web of his life ; so that he might never move or act 
in the whole circle of his destiny, without coming in 
conflict with it ; so that there might be absolutely 
no point where he could begin to realize his destiny, 
without being surrounded by it. Acquaintance with 
this antagonism was, therefore, the necessary begin- 
ning of all knowledge. A knowledge of the present 
might aud did exist before such an acquaintance, 
(and from this must we derive the ability to name 
the animals properly) ; but a just, true, and deep 
Jcnozvledge, a diving into the depths of being, into 
the secrets of what exists and what is now com- 
ing into existence, into the relations between the 
present and the past, was wholly out of the question 
without a knowledge of the antagonism between 
good and evil — without such a knowledge as would 
enable man to master and solve the strange contra- 
diction, l^o just knowledge of things could exist 
before the knowledge of good and evil. The condi- 
tion of all knowledge, was the knowledge of good 
and evil. 1 

Had man, therefore, acquired the contents of our 
account, by being transported from an insight into 

1 MaH did, indeed, attain to the knowledge of good and evil, 
by means of the fall, but not in the proper icay, and hence not 
to the proper knowledge. The knowledge of good and evil he had 
now acquired, was the very reverse of that knowledge he could 
and should have obtained. As he did not rightly apprehend and 
understand good, so neither did he truly understand evil. Not 
until, by means of redemption, he attains to a complete know- 
ledge of good, shall he possess a complete understanding of evil. 
Progress in these two kinds of knowledge goes hand in hand. 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 97 

the essence of all created tilings which lay clear and 
legible before his eyes, to a knowledge of the origin 
of all these, he must first of all have discovered the 
origin, nature, and existence of evil. Passing by 
entirely the fact that the subsequent test of his know- 
ledge would thereby have become superfluous, we 
would merely remark that the whole account, both 
in the first and second sections, contains not the least 
hint as to the origin of evil, then assumed to be in 
existence ; yea, even then about to make its impress 
upon history. The origin and all-pervading influence 
of evil could not have escaped a glance which pierced 
to the inmost essence of things, which fathomed, by 
means of its native powers of vision, the whole his- 
tory of all origins and beginnings. It is, hence, 
wholly impossible that the account of the pre-ada- 
mite history should have proceeded from the indi- 
vidual contemplations of the first man. This silence 
concerning evil, even then in existence, can be ex- 
plained only by admitting that the facts of the ac- 
count were communicated to man ; that the sovereign 
judgment of a wise Teacher and Instructor, yet for 
a while wisely set limits to the knowledge of his 
pupil. In short, the contents of the account, so far 
as they reach beyond the experience of man, must 
be a revelation from God to man; a revelation which 
made known to him only so much concerning the mys- 
terious events of the past, as was at the time neces- 
sary and useful for him ; which reserved the filling 
up of its chasms and the development of its hints, 
for a more experienced and mature age of the pupil. 
The same result is obtained from other sources. 
9 



08 BIBLICAL THEORY OP THE WORLD. 

We, too, indeed, are convinced that man in his ori- 
ginal state was called, and therefore endowed with the 
capacity to understand all things in their inmost es- 
sence, according to their relations to each other, and 
as to their origin and design. We are forced to as- 
sume this, from the position accorded to man by the 
account of the creation, and the mission assigned to 
him to rule the whole earth, with all its creatures. 
For, were he to rule over them, he must understand 
them; he must know what they are, whence they 
are, and what they were designed for. 

We are even further convinced that man, had not 
the catastrophe of the fall impaired his original facul- 
ties and transferred him to a wholly different stage 
of development, would have attained to that know- 
ledge in the way heretofore specified — that of direct 
intuition, or immediate contemplation — and that 
the essence of created things would have been fully 
disclosed to his sovereign glance, without using the 
scalpel of the anatomist, the hammer of the geolo- 
gist, the telescope of the astronomer, or the micro- 
scope of the naturalist ; in a word, without any of 
the astonishing yet necessarily feeble helps modern 
science makes use of, in order to understand the 
mere surface of things. 

But, on the contrary, w r e must most decidedly re- 
ject, as false and erroneous, and as in direct conflict 
with the Bible, the view that in the short time man 
retained his original position, his innate capacities for 
such a knowledge had been sufficiently developed, and 
his vocation thus to know had already been realized. 

Man was created perfect, and "very good;" but 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 99 

his innate perfection was a perfection needing deve- 
lopment, and 'possessing powers of development; for 
he was created a free personal being, with the design 
that he should determine himself, by an act of his 
own free will, to that end whereto God had appointee] 
him ; that he should unfold the energies and facul- 
ties his Creator had lent him, and thus realize In- 
vocation. His powers of knowledge, just as all 
faculties and natural talents, demanded a progressive 
development, in order to attain to complete, all-com- 
prehending, and all-pervading knowledge. What is 
set forth as the end of the development must never 
be looked upon as its beginning. 

This is precisely the view exhibited on the face of 
our record. The first section 1 mentions this as the 
destination or appointment of man, that he should 
rule the whole earth, and all that was thereon. But 
that this destination was the end of his development, 
and not its beginning, appears clearly from this fact, 
that the multiplication of the race and the replenish- 
ing of the earth was plainly made the condition and 
foundation of this wide exercise of authority. 2 This 
is further established by the second section, 3 which 
describes not the end or goal of the development 
of man, but its beginning. There it is said, not 
that he should rule the whole earth, but merely that 
he should dress and keep the Garden of Eden. The 
realization of that authority man was to have over 
the earth, which presupposed a knowledge of what 
was to be ruled, was thus to commence at some one 

1 Chap. 1. 2 Chap. 1 : 28. 3 Chap. 2. 



100 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WOULD. 

point upon the earth. From thence it was to extend 
gradually, by a steady progress, over the whole earth. 

Finally, that the view we have been controverting 
is an erroneous one, appears also from the fact, that, 
when consistently applied and carried out, there is 
no room left for the necessity of Divine revelation in 
the history previous to the entrance of sin ; while the 
history before the fall, as represented by Chap. 2, 
bears witness to the habitual employment of Divine 
revelation, as a real, historical fact, and leads us to 
infer that it was needful and necessary, since it was 
really employed. 

Had man been able by means of his native powers 
and ever -abiding endowments, to discern from the 
first moment of his existence, with a clear, penetra- 
ting and unerring glance, the nature and essence of 
created things, and to understand them and all their 
mutual influences and relations, in their cause and 
origin, in their beginning, progress and end — we can- 
not see how he could still need special Divine instruc- 
tions and revelations, in order to fulfil his mission. 

The Bible takes a wholly different view of the case. 
According to it, the first man appears as a being de- 
signed for a high end, and therefore highly gifted, 
whose gifts or talents were not yet developed and 
actively employed, whose vocation was not yet re- 
alized and maintained, but was to be hereafter. And 
in order that it might be, that his talents might be 
properly developed, that his vocation might not be 
missed, he was surrounded on all sides, and in every 
step he took, by Divine instructions, teachings, ad- 
monitions, and warnings. 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 101 

Kevelation, most assuredly, was never designed to 
compensate for investigation and reflection on the part 
of man, either before or since the fall ; but it was 
intended to direct these into the right paths, preserve 
them from errors, strengthen them, restore and purify 
them, where this was needed, supply their failings 
and fill up their chasms. Sufficient occasion was of- 
fered for this design, not only in the perverted and 
degenerate state of man after the fall, but also in his 
undeveloped state before the fall, surrounded as he 
was by dangers, yet ignorant of them. 

"We now proceed to the examination of the other 
supposition upon which Hofmann founds his view — 
the supposition that the process of the creation, as 
mentioned in Genesis 1 and 2, was known and com- 
prehended by the first man, before the fall. 

Even if we are forced to admit the correctness of 
this supposition, the result of our previous inquiry — 
that the account of the creation is not to be referred 
to contemplations of nature on the part of the first 
man, but rather to supernatural revelations from a 
Divine instructor — still remains. 

But we cannot admit its correctness, since the his- 
tory of the first man, as described in Genesis 2 and 
3, allows no room for it, since the unique and closely 
connected progress of this history excludes it. 

Chap. 2, describes the primeval history of the de- 
velopments of man — how he progressed under the 
guidance and heavenly teachings of a watchful and 
Divine instructor. When God placed man in the 
garden, he was yet without knowledge. This he was 
first to gain in the Garden of Eden. But least of all 
9* 



102 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

could man already, at that time, have possessed that 
profound discernment and comprehensive knowledge 
exhibited in the first Chap, of Genesis. The ignor- 
ance which the instructions given by God to Adam 
pre-suppose, would strangely harmonize with such 
a state of the case. The consciousness of man was 
yet at this time " carte blanche." He must, there- 
fore, have acquired such an understanding of the 
whole previous occurrence of the creation, during his 
stay in the garden ! But this is wholly out of the 
question, since the progress of his development dur- 
ing this time was so systematic, so coherent, so deci- 
sively and exclusively directed towards the one fixed 
goal — that of preparing man for his decisive trial — 
that there was no time for it. Everything that did 
not directly serve this end, would not have furthered 
his development, but hindered and retarded it, and 
all new knowledge which did not bear upon the point 
in view, would, for the time, have been foreign, ir- 
relevant and distracting. But this much is clear, 
that the whole account in Genesis 1, contains nothing 
at all to the purpose, in view of the preparatives to 
the trial of man. Consequently, the conception of 
its contents cannot pertain to the time before the 
fall. 

God placed man in the garden, for there his great 
trial was to come to pass, and caused him to pro- 
gress step by step, in the attainment of all such 
knowledge as was required for his decision, and 
allowed him to realize those developments which 
were the preliminary conditions of that decision. 
There was, while there, no time, no occasion, and no 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 103 

grounds for the conception of what was so foreign 
to this design, as the contents of the first Chapter of 
Genesis. 

If, therefore, the first man was at all acquainted 
with the substance of the first Chapter of Genesis, 
he could only have attained to such knowledge sub- 
sequently to the fall. He carried with him from 
Paradise, recollections merely of what he had there 
experienced, and of what he had learned from Di- 
vine Revelation. But the history of the creation of 
the earth was not included in these. 

The recollections of his individual experiences 
previous to the fall, constituted the first germ of that 
self-propagating tradition, which after the fall began 
to take form, and passed from mouth to mouth, 
down to the time of Noah, to that of Abraham, to 
that of Moses. 

This tradition was enlarged by the absorption of 
post-paradisiacal histories ; but it was also enlarged 
in another direction, by the reception of the history 
antecedent to man's abode in Paradise, that is, the 
history of the origin of all created things, which 
could be disclosed to the mind of man, only by means 
of revelation. 

"We might next inquire whether this history was 
made known to Adam by revelation, or whether it 
was imparted to the next generation by some man 
of God — some one who, like Enoch, "walked with 
God," 1 and to whom, divinely illumined, the facts 
of pre-historical times were disclosed, in like manner 
as the scenes of the future judgment were, according 

1 Gen. 5 : 22. 



104 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

to an old tradition sanctioned by the New Testa- 
ment, laid open to the illumined vision of Enoch 
himself: — but the necessary data are wanting upon 
which to venture a satisfactory reply to such an 
inquiry. 

Still, however, we cannot repress a conjecture 
which appears at least to possess much probability. 

If w^e examine more closely the account of the 
creation in the first Chapter of Genesis, we shall see 
that it is the offspring of a fixed, evident, and ex- 
press design, or at least that it points to and serves 
such a design, namely, that of giving a foundation 
to the hallowing of the Sabbath day, as of Divine 
institution, as a day adapted to the religious duties 
and wants of man. As God rested on the seventh 
day, after the work of six days, so also, in accord- 
ance with the Divine example and will, must man 
work six days, and rest from his earthly labors on 
the seventh. "We therefore think, and not without 
reason, that here, in Gen. 2 : 1, 3, may be fouud a 
hint as to the occasion and aim of this revelation of 
the history of the creation. If we inquire further 
for historical grounds upon which to rest such an 
origin of the account, we shall find in Gen. 4 : 26, 
that at the time when a son named Enos was born 
to Seth, the son of Adam, " men first began to call 
upon the name of the Lord." These words are not 
equivocal. They give an account of the first insti- 
tution of a formal, solemn, and public worship of 
God or Jehovah. Here we find, instead of a merely 
private, arbitrary, and irregular worshipping of God, 
as for example, the sacrificial offerings of Cain and 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 105 

Abel, the introduction of a common and general 
divine service. The first exigency in such a case 
would be, the fixing of a time of worship, and this 
time would be determined by the Sabbath, the arche- 
type, the model and key-note of all times of worship. 

Are we extreme 1 in conjecture when we suppose 
that the revelation of the history of the creation 
pertained to this time, so that it might serve as a 
basis to this sacred institution. 

Whether Seth himself, or Adam, who was then 
still living, or some other cotemporary, was the 
medium of this revelation, we cannot, of course, 
determine. 

§ 3. Continuation. 

The revealed history of the creation was given as 
the communication of a knowledge of the past — of 
such occurrences as had taken place before the con- 
scious existence of man. In what form and in what 
manner may we suppose this communication to the 
human mind to have taken place ? And how, 
regarding it as such, must we apprehend and inter- 
pret it ? 

The source of all human history is autopsy, or per- 
sonal observation on the part of man, whether it be 
that of the author of the history himself, or whether 
he have transmitted to him the observations and ex- 
periences of others. Nothing but what has been 

1 Let it not be objected here that this worship concerned Je- 
hovah, whilst the account of the creation recognizes the name 
Elohim only. The mention of Jehovah-Elohim, in Gen. 2 : 4 
seq., is sufficient to remove all difficulty. 



106 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

seen or experienced by man himself can be a subject 
of human historical description. History, such as 
man is capable of writing, can commence only where 
he himself, or his race, has arrived at self-conscious- 
ness, or a knowledge of the world, where (whether 
active or passive) he himself is the beholder of what 
occurs ; and it must ever end with the present mo- 
ment. But there lies a succession of being beyond 
each of these limits; a development, therefore also 
a history, — behind, as the past, before, as the future. 
For when man begins to observe or construct his- 
tory, himself and all the attendants and circum- 
stances of his being already exist, or have come into 
being ; nor does the stream of the development stop 
with the present ; the thread is not cut off, but spun 
and drawn out further by the countless bands and 
secret influences of both the visible and invisible 
world. All take part in spinning this mysterious 
thread, but no one is able to divine what form the 
common, the final product of all these workmen, 
shall receive. Both these histories, therefore, lie 
without the sphere of human knowledge, for it is 
confined to time and space, and is able to rule and 
take possession of the present only. God alone, who 
dwells beyond and superior to time and space, 
glances backwards and forwards, beholding as clearly 
the developments previous to the first moment of 
man's existence, as those in advance of the present 
moment. However different these two histories may 
be, yet are they both on the same level with respect 
to the ground of man's ignorance of them, or ac- 
quaintance with them. The ground of his ignorance 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 107 

is his finite nature ; the ground of his knowledge lies 
in the knowledge Grod possesses, and the medium be- 
tween ignorance and knowledge is, objectively, Di- 
vine revelation, and, subjectively, prophetic contempla- 
tion on the part of man, who beholds therein, with 
the spiritual eye, what is excluded and hidden from 
the bodily eye. Since, therefore, the source of know- 
ledge is the same with respect to both histories, and 
also the manner and means of its attainment — spirit- 
ual prophetic autopsy — so must also in both cases 
the historical representations founded upon such au- 
topsy, stand on the same level as to truthfulness, and 
be interpreted and apprehended according to the 
same laws. .Thus, therefore, we come into posses- 
sion of the very important hermeneutical rule, that 
representations of ^re-adamite developments, founded 
upon revelation, must be viewed from the same stand- 
point, and interpreted according to the same laws, 
as prophecies and sketches of future times and deve- 
lopments, founded also upon revelation. And this 
is indeed the only proper stand-point for the scientific 
exposition of the Mosaic history of the creation — 
so long as we acknowledge in it a record which has 
proceeded neither from the speculations of natural 
philosophers, nor from empirical science, nor yet 
from abstract reasonings of men, but from Divine 
revelation. 

But we must remember that the conception of de- 
velopments lying outside of all human observation, 
is totally different from that of the facts of experi- 
ence. There we behold with the spiritual, here with 
the bodily eye. Here we are governed by the sober 



108 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE M'ORLD. 

and unimpassioned .spirit of every-day life, with its 
keen and unfailing eye for the outward relations of 
things, while their inner character and deep signifi- 
cance escape notice ; hut there the beholder finds 
himself in a state sublimely surpassing all ordinary 
experience, and his vision rendered clear for behold- 
ing the secret connection of things. But at the same 
time he loses his interest for their outward relations 
and connections, and along with it, his ability to 
apprehend thorn clearly. The bodily eye looks upon 
that which is material; it is confined to the mere 
form of what appears, to the outward connections 
of things, which are indeed often wholly accidental, 
and without any necessity. It seeks for points of 
repose in outward circumstances; but as these are 
often merely deceptive appearances, it thus frequently 
loses the secret connection, the intrinsic worth, the 
higher significance and true position of things. It 
is directly the reverse with spiritual vision. This is 
directed to the spiritual element of what appears in 
external manifestation ; it regards with indifference 
all outward, accidental, and secondary relations, 
which might be totally different without changing 
the nature of the thing, and hence possess no interest 
or significance for it. It pierces to the core of the 
matter, and thus often overlooks the external features, 
the outward connections of things, the circumstances 
of the manifestation. Besides, we must remember 
that the objective contents of what is divinely re- 
vealed to man, accommodates itself to the subjective 
posture and capacities, and also to the existing wants 
of the mind to which it is communicated; so that 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 109 

we should by no means expect to find in the history 
of the creation, solutions of all possible questions, 
especially of such as can only be raised in an ad- 
vanced state of scientific inquiry ; but only of such 
as are of general religious importance, and of equally 
deep interest in all ages of the world. 

From what has been said, it is clear that the his- 
torical representation of the prophetic contempla- 
tions, and the reality of an occurrence as it comes to 
pass and is seen in vision, must absolutely agree, in 
their essential features — those essential to the mind 
beholding, and those essential to the deep significance 
of the facts themselves — but by no means that all 
outward, accidental and secondary circumstances of 
the passing event, must, of necessity, be closely ap- 
prehended, and minutely depicted in the account 
given by the prophet. We must ever keep this in 
mind in our apprehensions of prophetic histories; 
and it must be conceded that arbitrary interpretation 
cannot conceal the fact that this fundamental princi- 
ple arises from the very nature of the matter itself. 
We must necessarily wait, in the explanation of pro- 
phetic histories of the future, until they are realized, 
in order to learn their outward features and charac- 
teristics, their outward connections and accidental 
circumstances. We can, of course, entertain no 
such hopes with respect to the (past) history of the 
creation, but still, perhaps we possess a substitute for 
them, in the progress of modern empirical science, 
which, so far as it is able to draw, from a thoroughly 
explored " statu quo" — from the autopsy of what 
now exists — reliable conclusions concerning the 
10 



110 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

history of its origin, can also, in a certain degree, 
recur to the outward reality of the creation. 

"The Mosaic record," says Mchhorn, 1 "is impro- 
perly called the history of the creation; it should be 
called a picture of the creation. Every feature of 
it appears to betray the pencil of the painter, not the 
pen of the historian." And Amnion 2 says: "Accor- 
ding to the record, the author himself must have 
been an eye-witness to the creation." 

Both remarks are (apart from the consequences 
attached to them by their authors) apposite enough. 
The record bears, with unmistakable clearness, the 
impress of a proper personal contemplation, and is, 
indeed, due to such, if it be what the Jewish and 
Christian Church have ever held it to be. If it be 
the offspring of Divine revelation, then albo was it — 
according to the analogy of revealed histories of the 
future — conceived through the medium of prophetic 
contemplation, and its author (whoever he might be) 
framed in words what he had beheld with the eye of 
the mind; he described what he had seen, and de- 
scribed it as he had seen it. Hence the account as- 
sumes so panoramic, so plastic, and lifelike a cha- 
racter. It consists of prophetico-historical tableaux, 
which are represented before the eye of the mind, 
scenes from the creative activity of God, each one 
of which represents some grand division of the great 
drama, some prominent phase of the development. 3 

1 Compare his Repertorium, IV, 131. 

2 Compare his Bibl. Tlieologie, I, p. 269. 

3 This view has been received and approved by Ebrard (Ab- 
handl. iiber Bibel und Naturwissenschaften, 3, p. 167), and by 



HISTORY OF THE CREATION. Ill 

One scene unfolds itself after another before the 
vision of the prophet, until at length, with the 
seventh, 1 the historical progress of the creation is 
fully represented to Mm. 

J. P. Lange (Posit. Dogm., p. 243). On the other hand, it has 
been contested and rejected by Hofmann {Schriftbeweis. I, 231) 
and Delitzch (Genesis, page 42). The arguments of the two 
latter, so far as they touch the subject, do not affect the substance 
of my view ; but merely some erroneous assertions connected 
therewith, in the second edition of this work, which now, how- 
ever, are abandoned, Compare below, note 1, p. 115. 

1 " Taken strictly, therefore, the term Hexcemeron is incorrect, 
it should be Heptccmeron. The creation of the world was com- 
pleted, according to the Biblical view, not in six but in seven 
days. For the seventh day also, the day of God's rest, was es- 
sentially connected with the days of creation, since it is expressly 
said, Gen. 2:2: 'And on the seventh day God ended all his work 
which he had made/ The rest of the seventh day was the key- 
stone of the structure, the seal of its completion, and thereby the 
completion itself. It was a vain and shallow appliance the Sa- 
maritans and Syrians had recourse to, in altering the text of the 
above verse, and reading the sixth instead of the seventh day." 

The above, precisely as it stands, was contained in the second 
edition of this work. With astonishment, therefore, I read in 
J. P. Lange's Posit. Dogm., on page 232 : " Kurtz objects to the 
term Hex.emeron. He would speak of a seven days' work. 
What, therefore, was the work of the seventh day ?" Did not the 
repetition of my words in this place furnish the opportunity, and 
call me to justify myself against the insinuation of Lange, I 
should still, as heretofore, have remained silent about the matter. 
But now I may be allowed a few words in my own defence. 

Prof. Lange knows just as well as I do, and as every youth 
should know, that the term " Heptazmerori" is not to be inter- 
preted, " seven days' work," but that it denotes a complex period 
of seven days. Hence he is guilty of falsifying my words — not 
from ignorance, and still less from evil intent — but through 
haste and thoughtlessness. But that, in itself, might be over- 



112 BIBLICAL THEORY OF TIIE WORLD 



§ 4. Limitation and Duration of the Days of Creation, 

The first Chap, of Genesis mentions eight acts of 
creation, each one of which is introduced with the 
words, "God said: Let there be !" and on the other 
hand, speaks of but six days of creation, upon w T hich 
these acts take place. Each of these days of crea- 
tion begins with a morning of creation, which is 
marked by the Divine, "Let there be!" The day 
progresses, the wonderful commands of the Creator 
are effectually carried out, and at length, after the 
occurrence of evening and morning, a new day of 
creation is introduced. 1 

looked, for: " Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus." But if, on 
the other hand, VvoLLange cites the half-read and wholly misap- 
prehended passage in wrong relation, merely for the purpose of 
bringing in the taunting question: ""What therefore was the 
work of the seventh day V* — i. e., to convict me of absurdity and 
want of thought, such as I should well be ashamed of, were the 
imputation true — then he most unreasonably casts a stain upon 
my literary character, in the eyes of all his readers, who have 
neither time, opportunity, nor disposition to examine for them- 
selves the passage in my work so contemptuously treated, and 
thus converts a pardonable haste and carelessness into the most 
unpardonable want of consideration. 

I deeply regret being called upon to complain so severely of 
Prof. Lange, to whose writings I owe so much pleasure and ad- 
vantage. But there is a literary honor which must be preserved 
intact, and which, in the spirit of the eighth commandment, cannot 
be invaded at will. 

1 I cannot see that the common understanding of the words : 
"And it became evening, and it became morning,' 7 [according to 
Luther's rendering of the Hebrew, in Gen. 1:5] as containing 
within their compass a whole day, is the correct one. Such an 
interpretation is ungrammatical and contrary to the sense. The 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 113 

Here we are met by two fresh inquiries. It may 
be asked, first, whether the number seven of the 
prophetic visions, in which through the medium of 
Divine revelation, the history of the creation was 

"vav consecutivum " in this section, where order of time is so 
strongly marked, and in the connection in which it is used, must 
certainly denote order of time, so that what precedes in the order 
of the narration, must be regarded as also preceding in order of 
time. "God said: Let there be light! — and there was light. — 
God divided the light from the darkness. And it became evening, 
and it became morning." All here moves forward in an order 
of time the most strongly marked. Hence I cannot but regard 
the remark of Delitzsch (Genesis, p. 60) as founded in error, when 
he says : " The darkness preceded the light, hence the whole 
day began with the evening." For, on the one hand, the dark- 
ness is not called evening, but night, and on the other, when it is 
said: It became evening," it must be meant that a day had gone 
before, the place of which was now taken by the evening. The 
day of creation cannot, therefore, have begun with the evening ; 
it must have begun with the morning. It were inconceivable how 
such a misapprehension should have been retained for so long a 
time, and with such general consent, were not its origin capable 
of explanation. It is not to be referred to the 1st Chapter of 
Genesis, but rather to the notorious fact, that not only the Hebrews, 
but almost all the nations of antiquity, began their ordinary day 
with the evening. It was hence thought that the same view must 
underlie the ancient sacred record, or must be attached to it. I 
myself believe, indeed, that this view has its foundation in that 
record, but in a wholly different manner. It has its basis, not in 
the days from the first to the sixth, but in the seventh day. The 
working day began with the morning, in conformity to its nature ; 
but the day of rest, no less in harmony with its nature, with the 
evening. As now, the sabbath was the rule and measure of all 
civil and religious divisions of time, and was naturally begun in 
the evening, it was demanded for the sake of regularity, and by 
the typical character of the sabbath itself, that reckonings of time 
10* 



114 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

represented, was essential ; or whether it was merely 
accidental, that is, whether the creation might not 
have been represented in a greater number or fewer 
phases of development; whether this division is 
founded upon the objective fact of its really having 
so occurred as represented, or merely upon the sub- 
jective views of the prophet touching the manner of 
its occurrence ? Even were we compelled to take 
the latter view, the record would no more forego its 
Divine character and authority, than prophecies con- 
cerning future history suffer abatement of their value 
and significance, from similar circumstances. Were 
not strong grounds against such an apprehension of 
the account, to be found in the record itself, or in 
subsequent revelations, we must at once admit it as 
legitimate. 

But such is not the case. The record itself con- 
tains one explicit datum which compels us to regard 
the number seven of the visions as essential, as an- 
swering closely to the reality of the occurrence and 
the division of the work of creation. It is the foun- 
dation accorded to the division into weeks, and to 
the blessing of the seventh day, in Chap. 2 : 3, an 
argument which derives much strength from those 
passages of the law (Exodus 20 : 9-11, and 31 : 12- 
17) which were to enforce the observance of the 

in general should be made according to this rule. But the day 
of labor, as such, naturally began afterwards as before with the 
morning. We have in this view, which I am convinced is the 
only correct one, also a new proof that the "myth" of the creation 
is not derived from the division of time into weeks, but that the 
latter derives its origin from the "history" of the creation. 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 115 

Sabbath upon the Israelites. No purely subjective, 
unessential, and therefore arbitrary limitation of the 
various phases of the process of creation, could pos- 
sibly have been the occasion, the archetype, and the 
pattern of a Divine law or provision, particularly 
one of such significance and importance. The weight 
of this argument suffers not in the least from an 
appeal to the significance and sacredness of the 
number seven, founded both in nature and in the 
laws of the human mind. 1 

1 This is the only argument brought forward by Ilofmann and 
Delitzsch against the opinions expressed in the second edition of 
this work, to which I can concede the force of demonstration. 
But my view that the historical contents of the first chapter of 
Genesis were originally conceived in prophetic contemplation, still 
remains fundamentally and essentially the same, even after yield- 
ing an erroneous assertion or two connected therewith. I may 
here be allowed to notice at some length the remarks of DelitzscJi 
in opposition to my view, since his (Genesis, p. 40-42) are the 
most extended. 

Delitzsch says, 1st : "Prophecy which so reproduces the facts of 
the past, that they again seem to occur and pass before the eye of the 
mind, is without a parallel in the Old Testament. I reply : "With- 
out a parallel, true enough ; since the history here to be gained 
stood alone, and hence there was no possibility of an analogous 
case. Every subsequent reproduction, under the influence of the 
Spirit, of what had occurred in past time, might rest upon human 
recollection and communication. But as for the history of the 
creation, it could not be reproduced by the intervention of man's 
natural faculties merely, since it lay beyond the reach of these 
faculties — anterior to the time of man's creation. 2d. "The Spirit 
of God endowed the prophet, not with a knowledge of what had come 
to pass, but with a spiritual understanding of facts historically 
communicated" But still the knowledge of future events was im- 
parted to the prophets of old by means of the Spirit. The know- 



116 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

We now pass to the second inquiry, how we are to 
understand the limitation of time as represented by 
the prophet in the several phases of the creation : 
whether the days of creation there mentioned are to 

ledge of the events themselves was, indeed, not the important 
point in these cases, but rather a spiritual apprehension of them, 
so that they might influence the life and promote the welfare of 
those who possessed them. But a knowledge of the facts them- 
selves was preliminary to such a spiritual apprehension of them, 
and was the necessary condition of it. If such knowledge was 
not to be gained by the natural course of actual observation (on 
the part of the prophet himself, or from the observations of others 
communicated to him), then must it be imparted to him by inter- 
nal vision, under the influence of the Spirit of God. But the same, 
precisely, is the case in regard to past events or facts, which were 
witnessed, by no mortal eye. 3d. " The section contains no evi- 
dence of its being of a prophetic character. The author says no- 
thing of his having seen what he relates, in prophetic vision ; his 
ideas are not framed in prophetic language" In reply, I shall 
turn this argument, in the first place, against the author of it 
himself. Delitzsch assumes that the first man derived the matter 
of the record from God himself, by an immediate revelation ; or, 
more distinctly, that it was orally communicated to him by his 
Creator. Where is there any indication of this? Where does 
the author drop a word to indicate that he was thns taught of 
God? Where do we find that historical structure in which, ever 
since, permanent indications of such express oral teachings on 
the part of God are retained? But, apart from such considera- 
tions, is it absolutely necessary that what is seen in prophetic 
vision must always be expressly indicated as having been so beheld, 
particularly when it is perfectly clear that it cannot have been 
seen with the bodily eye ? Could the application of such a canon, 
to accounts of future history conceived in vision, be shown as 
perfectly legitimate? But, granting even that all this be so, have 
we indeed the account in the very same form in which it was de- 
livered, by its first author, to his descendants ? May it not ori- 
ginally have had such a prophetic structure, which, being unes- 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 117 

be regarded as true, natural, common days of twenty- 
four hours, so that precisely six times twenty-four 
hours must have been spent in the creation and 
more complete formation of the earth and its whole 

sential at best, could easily be lost or removed in the course of 
twenty centuries, during which time it was dependent alone upon 
oral transmission ? Delitzsch himself maintains, indeed, that the 
account may, during this long time, have suffered many injuries, 
and have lost essential facts (facts touching the substance of the ac- 
count). 4th. " The account belongs, if we recognize two channels of 
historical description in the Pentateuch (a prophetic and a priestly), 
not to the prophetic channel, but to the priestly." This remark is 
founded upon the above-mentioned hypothesis (page 88) of the 
origin of the Pentateuch, the correctness of which we have no 
need to call in question, so far as it influences the matter to which 
it is here applied. For, even if the account not only was origi- 
nally the offspring of prophetic contemplation, but still had borne 
upon its face the unmistakable impress of such an origin, the as- 
sumed priestly author would doubtless have found in Gen. 2 : 3, 
ground enough to warrant him in incorporating it in his sacred 
history, in preference to many other traditional descriptions of 
the creation. 5th. "If Gen. 1st be an account of what was seen by 
a prophet of Israel, whence then the surprising accordance with it 
to be found in the traditions of the heathen?" This inquiry does 
not affect my view, for I have never maintained that the author 
of Genesis was the first recipient of the facts divinely imparted. 
Delitzsch agrees with me in the fact that the account of the 
oreation, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, is to bo re- 
ferred to divine revelation. We merely differ in opinion as to the 
form in which this revealed knowledge was communicated to man. 
Delitzsch believes (if I rightly apprehend him) that God imparted 
it to man orally; I believe that God communicated it to him 
through the medium of prophetic vision. I am compelled to take 
the view I do from the panoramic, life-like character of the account, 
which must be referred, as it seems to me, to circumstances of 
personal observation with which it arose ; and also from the fact 
that information in regard to historical matters of the future, was 



118 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

organism — or whether this limitation existed only 
in the mind of the prophet, having no foundation in 
reality, so that the days are to be regarded merely 
as prophetic days, spaces or periods of time of indefi- 
nite length. 

That such periods of time might be styled days in 
the concrete representations of prophecy, no one will 
dispute. But we dare not maintain as a foregone 
conclusion, that since the record w r as conceived in 
the spirit of prophecy, therefore the six days must, 
of course, represent so many periods of indeterminate 
length. As in the predictions of the prophet Jere- 
miah, the seventy years were proper, natural years ; 
so also the six days mentioned in the account of the 
creation, may very easily have been natural days of 
twenty-four hours. There are but two modes of 
deciding how to understand the term day in this as 
in all similar cases. Either the record itself must 
contain other points which decide the matter, (as in 
the case, for example, of the predictions of the pro- 

never given, according to any representations of the Scriptures, by 
oral communication from God, but always through a prophetic 
medium under the influence of the Spirit. For I abide by the 
affirmation that the conception of a history lying antecedent to all 
human experience and recollection, is subjected to precisely the 
same conditions and laws as that of a history yet future. The 
oral teachings of God to the first man, chap. 2, and similar com- 
munications to the patriarchs (Noah, Abraham), are of an entirely 
different character, of a different form, import and design, from 
the revelations contained in the first chapter of Genesis. The 
latter would be, apprehended as outward, oral communications 
from God, without any analogy either in the Old or the New Tes- 
tament. 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 119 

pliet Jeremiah, Chap. 29, where it is clearly enough 
indicated that the seventy years were to be under- 
stood as natural, historical years), or we must found 
our decision on the facts of experience — -in the case 
of predictions concerning the future, upon the fulfil- 
ment of what is foretold ; and in regard to the pri- 
meval history of the world, upon the results of 
scientific research. 

!N"ot unfrequently do we hear the over-hasty re- 
mark, that the results of scientific investigation 
speak decidedly in favor of the view that the days 
of creation were long periods of time. For Astro- 
nomy, it is argued, will not permit us to limit the 
time spent in the creation of the heavens above, with 
all their stars, or even that spent in the creation of our 
own planetary heavens, to twenty-four natural hours : 
neither can we, in the face of the results of geological 
research, believe that the production of the primary 
and secondary formations, and the origin, course of 
life and death of the organic beings they enclose, 
took place in a single day of twenty-four hours 
length, or even in six of them. 

Delitzscli affirms that he has heard such positive 
assertions as the following, from the lips of distin- 
guished and prudent scientific men, and those who 
have the deepest attachment to Christianity; that 
"millions of years" (? !) must have preceded the 
present condition of the earth, and the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms it contains. 

But we must not allow our minds to be unsettled 
or turned from an impartial examination of the 
record before us, by any such assertions. The first 



120 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

and most significant inquiry should ever be, how 
does the record itself regard the days of which it 
speaks ? If it contain reliable data, from which we 
cannot but infer that the days are to be understood 
as natural days, neither Astronomy nor Geology 
has the right to a single word in the whole matter. 
We believe most firmly, that were this record ex- 
plained merely on its own merits and with the aid 
of other Scripture, and were there no outside, no 
foreign influences at work, the days could only be 
regarded as natural days. But we also believe that 
natural science can be harmonized with the Bible, 
in spite of such an exegetical result ; even though it 
abide by its exorbitant assertion, that millions of 
years must have preceded the present form of the 
earth. 

Delitzsch, indeed, believes that the position can 
also be maintained, "that it cannot possibly have 
been the intention of the account of the creation, to 
crowd the six days' work, together with the Sabbath 
which followed it, within the space of an ordinary 
week. The days of creation must have been periods 
of creation. Probably the author of the account 
himself did not intend to state their length. He may 
have meant davs according to a Divine standard of 

v CD 

measurement. ' n 

The record itself shows what it would be under- 

1 I myself, also, in the previous editions of this work, interpre- 
ted the days as prophetic days of indefinite length ; but merely 
in this view, that I thought there was nothing in the record it- 
self, rendering necessary a decision either the one Avay or the 
other. 



LIMITATION OP THE DAYS. 121 

stood to mean by the term day, where it begins to 
note the number of the days of creation, in verse 
fifth : God divided the light from the darkness, and 
called the light day, but the darkness he called night. 
Then came evening and morning. Thus the first 
day came to a close, and the second was introduced. 

The word "day" is certainly here used (not in dif- 
ferent senses, but just as the term is now used among 
all nations) with more or less limitation of meaning. 
It first designates the period of time we call day 
proper, the time between the dawn of morning and 
the darkness of evening; and then the whole day, 
including the night and the periods of transition be- 
tween day and night. It is clearly manifest, therefore, 
that the whole day, which was called the first clay, thus 
included four divisions of time (day and night, eve- 
ning and morning) which, within that period, suc- 
ceeded each other. !Now, there is no question but 
that the division of time which is here called day, 
was conditioned and limited by the presence of natu- 
ral light; consequently, the evening which followed 
such a day, and the morning which preceded the 
next day, must in like manner be understood as parts 
of an ordinary, natural whole day; and the latter 
can only be measured according to the natural, every- 
day standard still in use — the occurrence of one 
regular, natural change of light and darkness (of day 
and night). 

The days of creation were thus measured by the 
natural advent and departure of the light of day, by 
the occurrence of evening and morning. This stand- 
ard of measurement is given by the record itself, and 
11 



122 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

must be applied alike to each of the six days of crea- 
tion. But whether each of these clays was a natural 
day of twenty-four hours length, we cannot, of 
course, determine. Most probably it was, from 
the fourth day onward ; since from that time the sun 
began to rule the day, and the moon the night, intro- 
ducing in all probability the same order which abides 
undisturbed until the present hour. But the length 
of the three first days, when the present order of 
things did not exist, when the duration, of the light 
of day and the darkness of night was determined by 
wholly different laws, cannot, so long as these laws 
are unknown, be divined. The days of our record 
were measured not by the hours of the clock, but 
by the four divisions of the clay. 

In opposition to this, Delitzsch appeals to Gen. 2: 
2, 3. He says (page 61) : " The Divine Sabbath does 
not favor, but bears witness against the correctness 
of the apprehension, that the days of creation were 
of but 24 hours' length. For, if the Divine Sabbath 
of rest was of much greater length than a common 
Sabbath, and yet was the archetype and pattern of 
the latter, so also may the six days upon which God 
wrought in the w r ork of creation, have been vastly 
longer than common secular days, without, in the 
least, losing their significant typical character." 
Plausible enough, indeed, but still untenable ! Where 
are we told that the seventh day, on which God 
rested from all his w T ork, w T as much longer than a 
common civil clay? "Was it not, too, called a day, 
just as all those which preceded it, and numbered in 
a regular series as the seventh ? The record itself, in 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 123 

the description of the first day, points out unequivo- 
cally the proper interpretation of the word day. It 
is not, indeed, said, as it is with respect to the pre- 
ceding days, that an evening and morning followed 
the seventh day also. But may we hence conclude 
that this was certainly not the case? If so, then it 
was not a day like those which preceded it, and could 
not properly he called a day in the same sense and 
connection. The error of the argument lies just 
here, first, the seventh day is arbitrarily interpreted 
— the record says nothing in regard to its duration 
or its limits — and then, on the basis of this inter- 
pretation, is built a conclusion as to the duration of 
the other days, while the record itself marks the du- 
ration of the previous days, but says nothing at all 
in regard to that of the seventh. 1 

1 The reason that the closing words: "And the evening and the 
morning were, etc." are not appended to the description of the 
seventh day, is simply this, that no new day of creation followed 
this seventh day. Those words form in every instance, the transi- 
tion, the connecting link as it were, between one creative day and 
that which followed. Hence, as no such day followed the seventh, 
those words applied to that day would have been wholly out of 
place. Delitzsch, indeed, explains their absence in a wholly dif- 
ferent way : "The divine sabbath had no close ; it extends forward 
over all history, and is to absorb it into itself, and thus, having 
become the sabbath of God and of his creatures at the same time, 
is to endure for ever and ever." A beautiful remark and true 
enough, but not in place here. " The divine sabbath had no 
close." But had not the seventh day? Undoubtedly it had, just 
as well as the six days, to which it belonged as the seventh of a 
regular series. — But we cannot, however, concede that the divine 
rest, in the sense of the record, never had a close. The record looks 
upon the divine resting as the consummation of the creation. For 



124 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

Delitzsch continues : "It is highly p roper that the 
copy should answer to the incommensurable great- 
ness of the original, the archetype, only in a very 
limited degree." Both the Divine working and 
resting are indeed incommensurable, and signally 
so, for this simple reason, that they took place within 
the very same limits of time which are accorded to 
the working and resting of man. Delitzsch again 
remarks : " It is enough that the characteristic fea- 
tures — in this case : And it became evening, and it 
became morning [following the German] — should 
pass from the original to the copy." This we freely 
admit, for it establishes our view, and involves the 
opposite one in a contradiction, since it virtually 
denies the real objective character of the record, 
which even Delitzsch would not under any circum- 
stances renounce. For his arguments would only 
gain their end, by assigning a different cause for the 
occurrence of evening and morning in the days of 
creation, than the natural change of terrestrial light 

it is said: "On the seventh day (not the sixth) God ended his work, 
and rested on the seventh day." So far, therefore, as God's rest- 
ing finished the work of creation, it also had a close — it belongs 
to the past. Finally, as to the mention of the eternal Sabbath, 
and the entrance of God's creatures into it, I regard that as eise- 
gesis and not exegesis ; since the idea, legitimate as it is in itself, 
belongs entirely to the New Testament. The law of the Sabbath, 
as found in the Old Testament, could not be founded upon some- 
thing there still unknown. Believers, in Old Testament times, knew 
nothing of man entering into the rest of God, at least for many 
centuries ; but only of his entering into the rest of Scheol (Hades), 
since they were yet in great measure ignorant of the work of Him 
who was to burst the gates of Hades, in order to conduct his peo- 
ple from the rest of Hades into the rest of life eternal. 



LIMITATION OF THE DAYS. 125 

and darkness, (which at least since the fourth day, 
has ever been brought about according to the same 
laws that still bear sway). But with this we should 
have renounced the fundamental belief of the objec- 
tivity of the account. 

"Again, let us remember," continues our worthy 
friend, " that the six days of creation are called imme- 
diately after the history of the creation, in Chap. 2 : 4, 
one day, and thus a constrained literal interpretation 
is forbidden by the Scriptures themselves: — further, 
that Psalm 90, composed by Moses, gives expression 
to the great truth, that a thousand years in God's 
sight are but as yesterday w T hen it is past ; and lastly, 
that as prophecy has its owm methods of computing 
time, w T e may not forbid the application of a similar 
principle to cosmological questions." 

But surely it is not a too literal interpretation, to 
understand as proper, natural days, those that are 
described as such. We might with reason make 
this objection to such an interpretation as would 
force us to read the passage involved, Chap. 2 : 4, 
thus : " In the day that the Lord God made the earth 
and the heavens." 1 But what do we gain by this 
literal interpretation ? A wholly irreconcilable con- 
tradiction between the first and second sections of 
the record — the heavens and the earth being created 
in six days according to the one, and in a single day 
according to the other — a contradiction which can 

1 The word QV-3 (with the following infinitive) literally trans- 
lated, is — "t>i the day that" — but it has throughout, in usage, the 
force of a mere conjunction or adverb — then, as (at the time 
when). 

11* 



126 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

never be solved by passiug from a close, literal in- 
terpretation, into the province of arbitrary spiritual 
interpretation, with the remark, that the measure- 
ments of time here spoken of are Divine measure- 
ments, six of which may be equal to one. 

The argument drawn from the great and immov- 
able truth of Psalm 90 : 4, is altogether inapplicable 
here, for the days of creation here spoken of are 
described not as they appear to the mind of G-od, but 
as they are to be understood by man: — and the in- 
ference that, since prophecy has its own methods of 
computing time, nothing may forbid the application of 
a similar principle to cosmological questions, springs 
from the confounding of two wholly different thiugs. 
For the unusual measurements of time that occur in 
prophecy, are conditioned by the subjective posture 
of the prophet's mind; but measurements of time as 
they occur in cosmological descriptions, are founded 
upon the objective nature of the real occurrence. 

This then is 'the final result of our inquiry : the 
days of creation are, according to the record itself, to 
be understood as spaces of time, each one of which 
included a single change of light and darkness, of 
terrestrial day and night. They had precisely the 
same limits as a modern natural day. But whether 
the space of time included between these boundaries 
w r as, even then, of just twenty-four hours in length, 
we are wholly at a loss to determine. We are not 
to be swerved from this our final conclusion, by the 
self-confident remark of Ebrard, (p. 171), that it 
would bespeak "lamentable narrowness of mind," 
to understand the days of creation as natural, physi- 
cal days, instead of interpreting them symbolically. 



CREATION OP HEAVENS AND EARTH. 127 

We have undertaken the task of demonstrating 
that the Biblical account of the creation may be 
harmonized with the results of Astronomy. From 
what we have already said, the task has evidently 
increased in difficulty, and the basis of our operations 
become narrowed. But it has also become evident 
that the harmony we are endeavoring to establish, is 
to take place, not on the basis of mere fancy or dog- 
matic assumption, but on that of impregnable truth. 

§ 5. Creation of the Heavens and the Earth. 

The history of the creation begins with these 
words: " In the beginning God created the heaven 
and the earth." If we examine these words wholly 
on their own merits, without any reference to their 
connection with what follows, we cannot stand in 
doubt for a single moment as to their design and 
import. Nothing so pervades the whole body and 
spirit of the Old Testament as this great fact, that the 
universe did not exist from eternity — (either as crude, 
shapeless matter, or as a concourse of matured hea- 
venly bodies) — but that God, who alone is from 
eternity, and the first great cause, created it in time, 
or rather along with time. This grand, this funda- 
mental principle of Old Testament knowledge of 
God, stands on the very threshold of the Divine 
records, on the very threshold of that Book which 
was to furnish the Israelitish people with their own 
early history, together with a sketch of the wondrous 
events which had preceded it. This great principle 
was the distinguishing mark of that chosen people, 



128 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

the stand-point from whence they viewed the whole 
subject of religion, and also the basis and pre- 
liminary of their history. By means of its possession 
and application, they were distinguished from all 
other nations of antiquity, who one and all were 
ensnared in such a worship of nature as deified the 
world itself, who believed the world to be self-ex- 
istent and eternal, who knew not, nor desired to 
know anything concerning a personal God, distinct 
from the world and infinitely exalted above it. Against 
these monstrous and destructive errors of heathen- 
dom, the first word of the sacred records of Israel 
uttered a most strenuous protest. 

But greater difficulties are met with in the expla- 
nation of these introductory words, so soon as we 
attempt to apprehend them in their connection with 
the description of the six days' work which imme- 
diately follows. 

They are regarded by many as a species of super- 
scription to note the contents of the whole chapter, 
as a summary statement of the six days' work de- 
scribed in detail by the remainder of this chapter. 
The fact that the creation of the heavens is specifi- 
cally mentioned, as the narration proceeds, in the 
8th verse, and that of the earth in the 10th, would 
seem to harmonize well with this assumption, and 
even demand that it be admitted as legitimate. Yet 
still the passage cannot be so apprehended, taken in 
connection with what immediately follows. For the 
word "and" with which the following sentence 
{ u and the earth was without form, and void: and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep') begins, proves the 



CREATION OF HEAVENS AND EARTH. 129 

2d verse, and indeed the whole chapter which fol- 
lows, to be a continuation of the account commenced 
in the 1st verse, and places beyond doubt the fact that 
the creation of the heavens and the earth, mentioned 
in the 1st verse, took place previous to the six clays' 
work. If the 1st verse be indeed a summary of the 
account of the whole chapter, then the narrative 
proper commences with the word "and," of the 2d 
verse. But it is clear that the word "and" cannot 
introduce a proper and absolute beginning. And 
besides, such an apprehension of the passage would 
border closely on the false view, that the words 
"without form and void," of the 2d verse, refer to 
an eternal chaos ; so that, in such light, our account 
of the creation can refer to no other creative act than 
the mere transformation, arranging, and quickening 
of a chaotic mass of matter already in existence. A 
creation out of nothing, which is so imperatively 
demanded by the whole spirit and substance of the 
Old Testament, and assumed by it as the best set- 
tled of all facts, would thus not be plainly taught, 
but left in anxious doubt, by silence in the very 
place where there was every motive and considera- 
tion for expressing the fact in the most unmistakable 
language. 

Though on the one hand we are forced by the 
word "and" of the 2d verse, to regard verse 1st as 
truly a part of the account of the creation, as a sen- 
tence of a connected whole, and not a mere heading 
to the chapter, we cannot, on the other, deny that 
there exists an obvious difference in tone, manner, 
and mode of representation, between its formal 



130 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

statement and the narrative which follows. The 
first verse evidently contains none of that life- 
like spirit and descriptive character, which is so 
decidedly impressed npon the whole remainder 
of the narrative. We there discover none of that 
concrete delineation of details which so characterizes 
all the rest of the chapter; and hence infer that we 
are warranted in not including the first verse in that 
history which was conceived in prophetic vision, and 
which constitutes the ground-work of the Mosaic 
record of the creation. 

^Nay rather, the first glance of the prophet, as we 
conceive, revealed the earth to him as already in ex- 
istence, though in a waste and desolate condition. 
But as the vision progressed, he "beheld how through 
the mighty energy of the Divine command, our 
present earth, with all its fulness of light and life, 
arose from the dark and lifeless earth first disclosed 
to his view. This is what the prophet saw, and this 
is what he has communicated. 

But whence came that "waste and desolate" earth, 
from which God formed one so beauteous, and teem- 
ing with all manner of life ? Heathendom of later 
ages, whose original consciousness of God had be- 
come so obscure, that the very idea of a living and 
personal God had been wholly lost, regarded it as a 
crude, unwrought chaos, existing from eternity. 

In order to completely overthrow this sad and dan- 
gerous error, the prophet who first conceived the his- 
tory of the creation, or some one who subsequently 
revised the tradition, perhaps the author of Genesis 
himself, prefixed to the sacred account that weighty 



CONDITION OF THE EARTH. 131 

and important introductory verse, testifying both of 
a personal God and of a creation in time. 

It mentions what was preliminary to the six days' 
work, affording a foundation for the description of 
what took place on these days, and also guards us 
against a misinterpretation of the six days' work. 

The first verse, therefore, as we regard it, is not a 
heading to the chapter, but an introduction to the six 
days' work ; not an account of something first com- 
ing to pass within the six days' work, but of a fact 
preceding it both logically and chronologically. 

In thus making a distinction as to origin and char- 
acter, between the 1st verse and the narrative which 
follows — looking upon the one as the offspring of 
prophetic vision, and upon the other as a necessity 
or result of reflection on the part of spiritual and 
religious mind — we are by no means to be under- 
stood as making a distinction between the two in re- 
gard to their value in a religious point of view, as 
though one were Divine revelation and the other 
mere human opinion. Nay, we regard both alike as 
revelations from God, and differing only in the mode 
of their conception — the former as the offspring of 
divinely enlightened reason, the latter as the fruit of 
prophetic vision. 

§ 6. Condition of the Earth prior to the Six Days' Work, 

There are two conceivable modes of explaining 
the first verse in connection with the account of the 
six clays' creation which follows. It may either be 
regarded as an account of the creation of the element- 
ary and primeval matter of the universe, from which 



132 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

were formed in six days the systems of worlds as 
they now exist in their matured and completed forms 
— so that the waste and-desolate condition mentioned 
in the second verse must be understood to involve 
merely the absence thus far of light and life, a stage 
of development not yet advanced to this high prero- 
gative : or it may be looked upon as an account of 
an original creation complete in itself, into which, 
through the medium of a catastrophe hereafter to be 
considered, came that devastating process which gave 
rise to the darkness and the waste condition men- 
tioned in the second verse — so that the six days' 
work can only involve the restitution or new-creation 
of the earth which had been laid waste. 

Our record does not decide hetween these tivo modes 
of intrepretation. As its author, acting in the capa- 
city of a medium of revelation, could only report 
what he had seen in vision, he does not nor could he 
say, whether the earth was created in this waste and 
desolate condition, nor by what means, if its desola- 
tion belonged to a subsequent period, such devasta- 
tion was effected. 

To the first mode of interpretation, it has been at- 
tempted to oppose the expression "heaven and 
earth " in the first verse ; for these words, it is said, 
cannot refer to the universe in its elementary condi- 
tion, because the heavens and the earth could not 
exist before those original elements had been sub- 
jected to a process of individualization and more 
perfect arrangement. But this objection goes but 
half way, and fails to prove just what needs proof. 
The expression "the heavens and the earth " involves 



CONDITION OF THE EARTH. 133 

the fact at least of such an individualization, but 
by no means the necessary maturation and comple- 
tion of the individual worlds. Verse 2nd places the 
truth of this assertion, as far as the earth is concerned, 
at least, beyond all doubt ; for there the waste and 
desolate mass of the earth even, from which the pre- 
sent earth was to be formed by the work of six days, 
is already called the earth. And it .may justly be so 
called, for it was individualized even then — it existed 
as a world by itself in distinction to other worlds. 
The same must be assumed with regard to the hea- 
vens and the celestial bodies in general — even though 
the account, which specifies the case of the earth 
only, and what intimately concerns it, does not speak 
expressly on this point. 

A further argument against the first, and in favor 
of the second mode of interpretation, has been 
sought in the words, " without form and void," 
["waste and desolate"] (tohu vabohu), of verse 
second. This expression, upon which etymology 
can throw no satisfactory light, designates beyond 
all doubt, wherever else it occurs (Is. 34 : 11 ; Jer. 
4 : 23), a positive devastation and desolation, which 
has succeeded to previous life and fruitfulness ; but 
never a mere negative want of life, a low stage of 
development which cannot yet claim the prerogative 
of life. Consequently, it has been said, the expres- 
sion must be similarly interpreted here. But it is 
clear that this conclusion is quite too precipitate, 
when we reflect that the expression, just like our 
term " waste," maybe so comprehensive as to be 
applicable alike, both to a state of positive devasta- 
12 



134 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

tion, and a state of mere negative want of life. The 
very fact of the author's silence in regard to the 
origin and nature of this waste and desolate condi- 
tion of the earth, proves that he used the expression 
in this loose, undefined sense. 1 

Further, it has been said : " God is a God of light 
and of life; he would not create a dark, dismal, and 
lifeless chaos, hut only worlds of light, life, and 
order, in which he might behold the reflection of his 
own glory and blessedness. And that were we to 
imagine a work of God not yet fully completed, it 
could never be one in such a condition as verse 
second describes the earth to have been ; for a work 
or creation coming from the Divine hand, though it 
be not yet perfected, must, according to the measure 
of its development and capacity, reflect a Divine 
harmony and order, light and life." — AVe might, 
indeed, allow that the author used the expression in 
a loose, comprehensive sense, and still deduce from 
his words the conclusion, that they can only be 
properly understood, by assuming that the primeval 
earth had been subjected to a devastating process, 

1 DelUzsch (p. 55-63) accedes to my view in this connection. 
He says : " The sound and significance of these two words are 
portentous/' . . . " Still it is true that the etymological signi- 
ficance of the phrase * tohu va bohu' is not satisfactorily met by 
the purely privative idea of want of form and order." He at- 
tempts to do justice to the import of the phrase by a speculative 
deduction in which I cannot acquiesce. He would see in the 
" tohu va bohu" the pure original matter of the world, which, be- 
ing found in a non-divine state, but not in a positively anti-divine, 
nor yet in a merely negative non-divine, but in a positive non- 
divine state, was to be reduced and brought under, etc. 



CONDITION OF THE EARTH. 135 

anterior to the six days' creation. This view of the 
case still retains some weight in the author's mind ; 
but he cannot any longer attach to it the importance 
(as in the first edition of this work) of a satisfactory 
proof. It can at best but add to the weight of argu- 
ments drawn from another quarter. 1 

The view that the earth was subjected to a devas- 
tating process, between the time when the heavens 
and the earth were originally created, and the time 
of the six days' work, and that this process gave 
rise to the necessity of a restitution, a new-creation, 
cannot, therefore, be established from this first verse 
of the Bible — but neither docs the whole first chap- 

1 The assertion so often made, that the second verse can or 
should be translated thus: "And the earth became waste and de- 
solate/' is directly in the face of the true grammar of the clause. 
Had such been the meaning of the author, he should certainly 
have said T*1N\1 \*7m> instead of HiTi! P^NfUi ™ d have 

I v t t • : - t : it | vt it : 

supplied, to avoid all ambiguity, the preposition 7 with the verb 
n^H- Drcchsler (Einheit und Echtheit der Genesis, pp. GG, G7) 
attempts to show that the second verse cannot, from its structure, 
be intended to describe the condition of the earth as it came from 
the hands of its Creator, according to the first verse. The second 
verse consists, he says, of three clauses: The earth was without 
form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep, and the 
Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. The effect of 
the copulative continues from the first clause forward to the others 
also, so that if we translate: God created the earth without form 
and void, and covered with darkness, we must also say he created 
it with the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. 
But this argument avails nothing against the view it would com- 
bat. It may be replied, that the second verse sa}'S not in what 
condition the earth was, as God created it, but that it states the 
condition it was in when he had created it. 



136 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

ter contain a single word that militates against such a 
vieiv. Both opinions may still, from this stand-point, 
be held as equally legitimate. But we must leave 
the matter undetermined for the present, and pa- 
tiently wait to see whether subsequent revelations 
do not offer us something more tangible and decisive 
on this point (Compare § 25). 

§ 7. The First, Second, and Third Bays Work. 

The earth ivas without form and void, and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep. The raging elements 
toss upon each other in wild disorder : nowhere does 
the eye of the Prophet behold the first beginnings 
of order and harmony, of light and of life. But it 
is not ever to be so. Already is the Spirit of God 
seen moving upon the face of the wild and restless 
waters, brooding over the dreary and lifeless waste, 
awaking it to life and fruitfulness. The barren 
w T aste must vanish before his presence, and the desola- 
tion before the breath of his mouth. The fettered 
germs of life, made fruitful by his breath, await the 
hour of their freedom and development. Then is 
heard over the dark and raging waters, the potent 
command of the Almighty: "Let there be light!" — 
"and there was light." Suddenly, and from the 
midst of the thickest darkness, light breaks forth in 
unshackled freedom, the first expression of life, and 
the condition of all further developments of life in 
the yet waste and barren earthy mass. Light, the 
first created of God upon earth, the resplendence of 
the Divine in the sphere of the cosmical, bears upon 
its front the seal of the Divine good-will ; it ever 



FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD DAYS. 137 

greets the favored beholder as a messenger of Divine 
love and grace. "And God saw the light, that it was 
good" Darkness had enshrouded the light over the 
face of the waters ; hut, u God divided the light from 
the darkness." Thus light was set at liberty, and 
called forth to an independent existence. E"o longer 
does it lie enshrouded in the darkness ; but, sweep- 
ing over it and through it, gives to it bounds and 
fills it with life. The light is called day, the dark- 
ness night. The first day's work is brought to a 
close. Evening has come, the morning dawns. 
Thus the first day is completed, and the second is 
introduced. 

A new day breaks forth. The laboring earth begins 
to move amid the heavy waters : a new command 
from above has excited her, and she also must soon 
bring forth the hidden treasures of her fruitful womb. 
God said : Let there be a firmament (Ausdehnung. 
Heb. Rakiah,) between the waters', and he called the 
firmament Heaven. This was the ethereal heavens, 
the pure, clear, transparent expanse of air over-head; 
the atmosphere with all its unfailing springs of life 
and bliss, as inexhaustible as they are indispensable 
to all kinds of animated beings which were to appear 
upon the earth. It rests upon the waters of the earth, 
and, like a firm arch, supports the oceans of the hea- 
vens. Thus it divides the waters below from the 
waters above ; the seas from the clouds which were 
to carry their waters, laden with the richest bles- 
sings, to the dry land, so soon as the latter had 
freed itself from the dominion of the all-engulphing 
floods. 

12 * 



138 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

The third day includes two acts of creation, but 
they are closely connected, both from inner signifi- 
cance and also the fact of their having followed im- 
mediately one upon the other: the separation of the 
seas from the dry land, and the clothing of the latter 
with the vegetable world. As the task of the first 
day was to liberate the light from the bonds of dark- 
ness, and that of the second to separate the heavens, 
so laden with blessings, with rains and fruitful sea- 
sons, from the chaotic floods of the primeval earth, 
so also the creative word of the third, freed the firm 
land from the constraint of the seas, which hereto- 
fore overflowed and engulphed all things. For as 
the polar opposition and well-established reciprocal 
relation between light and darkness, between day 
and night, as, also, between earth and air, seas and 
clouds, lie at the foundation of all life and prosperity 
upon our globe; so also is a complete and permanent 
division of laud and water, the foundation of all fur- 
ther developments of life upon the earth, and also 
the guaranty of the prosperous and undisturbed life 
of the inhabitants of both land and sea. The land, 
indeed, is the favored abode of the noblest work of 
God ; therefore must it be freed from the dominion 
of the sea by the creative and all-disposing w r ord of 
God, and oppose to the latter firm, immovable bar- 
riers. The tumult caused by this sudden separation 
is depicted by the Psalmist in the following words 
(Ps. 104, 5-9) : 

" He laid the foundations of the earth, 
That it should not be removed for ever. 



THE FOURTH DAY'S WORK. 139 

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a 

garment : 
The waters stood above the mountains. 
At thy rebuke they fled ; 

At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. 
They go up by the mountains; they go down by 

the valleys, 
Unto the place wmich thou hast founded for 

them. 
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass 

over, 
That they turn not again to cover the earth." 

As the waters retire and the dry land appears, the 
pregnant earth immediately brings forth, through the 
energy of a fresh command from God, the wonders 
of the vegetable world, with all their beauty, bril- 
liancy of color, and abounding fruitfulness ; whose 
seeds and germs had been implanted by the vivifying 
breath of that mysterious Spirit which moved upon 
the face of the primeval waste and desolate earth. 
The vegetable world which eagerly clung to the 
parent earth, covering her nakedness with its magni- 
ficent robes, had no separate life, no independent 
existence. Therefore it originated on the same day 
which gave to the land from w r hich it drew its susten- 
ance, a separate existence. 

§ 8. The Fourth Day's Work. 

Thus, as we have seen, was the formation of the 
earth as a globe, separate and distinct in itself, com- 
pleted. On this, the fourth day, its relation to the 



140 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

rest of the heavenly bodies is to be determined and 
permanently established. 1 

In the "rakiah " or expanse of the heavens, which 
was the result of the second days' work, the sun, moon 
and stars were placed, by the word of the Almighty. 
They were to divide the day from the night, and be for 
signs, and for seasons, for days, and for years ; and 
also, to be for lights to give light upon the earth. The 
greater light was to rule the day, and the lesser light to 
rule the night. 

The question, whether we are to understand by 

1 Hoftnarm (Schriftbew. p. 243) and Delitzsch (Genesis, p. 71) 
regard the remarkable progress in the work of creation in an 
entirely different light. With them the fourth day rises in the 
scale of creation, "in that the celestial bodies, separated from 
the general mass, and hasting in their wide and unwearied orbits 
through the heavens, offer to our view a higher stage of individu- 
alization than plants helplessly confined to the surface of the 
earth:" whilst, again, the creations of the fifth and sixth days, 
animals and man, from their capacity of voluntary movement, 
exhibit a still higher degree of individualization than the stars. 
I very much fear that the record, in spite of all that is said about 
its objective character, is thus to be degraded into a poor, mise 
rable treatise on science. For, if the record is to be interpreted 
as an account of objective facts, and in such manner that the 
mind of the author is ever supposed to be guided by the Spirit, 
and so that the plants being created before and man and the ani- 
mals after the stars, should show that, in the mind of God, the 
one hold a position below and the other above the stars — then will 
natural science, as I apprehend, be so fully able to show that such 
a scale of being is altogether false and contrary to nature, that all 
attempts to defend it will be utterly futile. Such a view must 
either be given up, or we must at once concede that the account 
is not objective truth, but the production of some philosopher or 
other, (and rather an unskilful one too). 



THE FOURTH D A Y ' S WORK. 141 

the expression "stars," as used in the description of 
the fourth day's work, the whole starry heavens, with 
their countless millions of fixed stars, their milky- 
ways and vast groups of stars, or merely the stars of 
our solar system, has given rise to no little contro- 
versy. In the first edition of this work, the author, 
in accordance with the opinions of many predecessors, 
expressed himself in favor of the latter view; but now 
the most weighty arguments force him to regard the 
former as alone admissable. 

His apprehension of the waters above the firma- 
ment, as mentioned in the second day's work, in 
connection with another view since acknowledged to 
be erroneous, was as follows : 

" The massive waters of the beginning (verse 2d) 
being polarized and separated by the energy of the 
Divine command, those above the firmament fur- 
nished the substratum for the formation of the celes- 
tial bodies, those below T the substratum for the 
formation of the earth. Immediately after the second 
day's work, began the individual development of 
each sphere — that of the earth under the firmament, 
that of the stars above it; — and the formation and 
completion of each progress with equal pace, as we 
might naturally suppose, and as the account itself 
intimates. The waters above the firmament soon 
withdrew from the eyes of the prophet, his whole 
attention being attracted by the earth to which he 
belonged, and in which he had such a special interest; 
hence the prominent place its formation and com- 
pletion held in his mind. Having finished the 
description of the earth's formation in particular, he 



142 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

now proceeds in the next, the fourth day's work, to 
mention the completion of the celestial "bodies. These 
were already so far developed as to he fitted to 
assume that relation to the earth which they were 
destined to hold, since they had progressed in for- 
mation equally with the earth. That we are war- 
ranted in this assertion, is shown by the fact that the 
earth on the third day brought forth the vegetable 
world, whose origin and subsistence certainly de- 
pended upon a real and settled, though perhaps at 
that time still feeble influence of the sun upon the 
earth. But the prophet, whose mind was fully 
engaged and filled with the wonders of the formation 
of the earth, could not mark the simultaneous facts 
going on in the formation of the stars — he could 
not regard the earth and stars at the same time and 
progressing in formation with equal pace — but one 
must be seen after the other, and of course be de- 
scribed in the same relation. The finishing of both 
earth and stars consisted in the fact, that the pre- 
liminary relation, introduced on the first day, between 
bodies giving and bodies receiving light, was now 
-permanently established, and brought out in the con- 
trast or opposition of the solar and planetary prin- 
ciples." 

The assumption that we are to understand by the 
stars of the fourth day, merely the planets of our 
solar system, was attempted to be justified on the 
following grounds : 

" The whole scope of the account of the creation 
is so evidently confined to the earth and what per- 
tains to it, that we are irresistibly forced to believe 



THE FOURTH DAY'S WORK. 143 

that the fourth day's work also, had reference only 
to such heavenly bodies as are essentially connected 
with the earth; to such as stand in immediate or 
close relation to it, and form with it an articulate, 
unique system. Again, the sun and moon, the 'two 
great lights to give light upon the earth,' so mono- 
polize the attention of the prophet, that the stars in 
the firmament are scarcely even observed. All he 
says touching the design and mission of the celestial 
bodies, and their relation and position with regard 
to the earth, refers so specially, indeed so exclusively, 
to the sun and moon, that the claims of the heavenly 
bodies in general to be 'for lights to the earth,' as 
expressed in verses 14, 15, and 18, are completely over- 
shadowed by the high perogatives of the ' two great 
lights,' as stated in the 16th verse. The additional 
words, 'the stars also,' at the close of the 16th verse, 
which are subjoined in a manner so supplementary 
and unimportant, without any further explanation 
of the design, mission and position of these distant 
and unknown bodies, after the mission of the sun 
and moon had been stated with the utmost distinct- 
ness, were evidently regarded by the prophet himself 
as of mere subordinate importance. And they are 
so little dwelt upon, so left in the background of 
the picture, that their interpretation should not be 
attempted upon their own merits, but left to depend 
upon their connection with the whole account, their 
tendency in general, and particularly to the relation 
of the work of the fourth day to that of the rest. 
Perhaps we may thence draw some conclusion to aid 



144 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

us in determining the design and true import of 
words so vague and unsatisfactory in themselves." 

The above reasoning is liable to weighty objec- 
tions ; and, as we are now convinced, has been over- 
thrown. 

In the first place, it places the whole stand-point 
of the author of the history of the creation in a false 
and unpropitious light, by attaching to it a scientific 
interest, which was wholly foreign to it. The ac- 
count of the creation was given alone for religious 
purposes, and would scorn to be called a compen- 
dium of Astronomy or Geology. Its design is a 
threefold one. It would, first of all, show the rela- 
tion of God to the world ; then the relation of man 
to the rest of creation, his high, sovereign position 
in the scale of being, by which his mission in his- 
tory is conditioned; and finally, the typical reference 
the work of creation bears to the disposition of his 
duties and labors in life. 

The first design is clearly revealed in the first 
verse : In the beginning God created the heavens and 
the earth. Each word of this weighty verse bears 
with signal force upon the scales of religious know- 
ledge, from the fundamental truths it teaches, and 
the dangerous errors it excludes. The author of 
Genesis might have satisfied himself that he had 
gained his end, by stating this general proposition, 
had not its general and abstract character involved 
in some degree — particularly in the case of the Orien- 
tals, whose minds grasp and retain only the concrete, 
the embodied — the danger that the infinitely im- 
portant truths of the expression might be overlooked 



THE FOURTH DAY'S WOKE. 145 

or feebly apprehended. Hence the necessity of dress- 
ing them in concrete forms, of developing them in 
detail, and attaching to them the character of tangi- 
ble, living realities, that they might be indelibly im- 
printed upon the mind of the reader. But still more 
decisively would a further development of these 
truths be demanded by the two other designs of the 
account of the creation, which were, to bring to the 
consciousness of man, in living, tangible forms, his 
relation to nature and to his fellow-beings. 

Such motives of a religious nature, and none other 
— least of all, motives drawn from the science of 
Astronomy or Geology — induced the prophet, or 
rather the Spirit, whose instrument he was, to give 
a more detailed account of the process of the crea- 
tion, as it occurred in the six days. We cannot, 
from this point of view, believe that he kept in 
mind the distinction which Astronomy makes be- 
tween the heavens of the planets and the heavens 
of the fixed stars, since there is not a word hinting 
at or expressing such fact. We may, indeed, easily 
conceive of such a distinction being of significance 
in a religious point of view; but had such been the 
case here, the distinction would have been clearly 
made, particularly as its legitimacy was in all proba- 
bility matter of easy discovery and common belief, 
in the earliest times of the human race. But the 
very fact of its not being mentioned, indeed, not even 
hinted at, proves clearly that it was a matter of no 
significance or interest to the prophet, nor promotive 
of his design, as he viewed the facts of the creation ; 
but this does not necessarily disprove the fact, that 



146 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

it might be of importance in a later or more ad- 
vanced stage of revelation, or serve other and more 
comprehensive designs of the latter. 

If it be true that the author, in the 16th verse, 
speaks of the stars in general, without restricting his 
meaning to any particular kind of stars, we are not 
allowed, however much the expression "the stars 
also," retreats into the back-ground, and appears of 
but secondary importance — indeed, on this very 
account the less — arbitrarily to restrict, limit or 
determine its meaning ; the expression must retain 
the broad general character in which it appears. 

!N"or is, on the contrary, the objection of any avail, 
that the sun, moon, and stars, of the fourth day, 
were placed in the "rakiah" (firmament) made on 
the second day, which sprang from the earth ; and 
that therefore they must be regarded as belonging 
to the earth, in a physical point of view. For the 
"rakiah" or ethereal heaven, is identical with the 
"terminus technicus" of the earth's atmosphere, 
merely in a scientific sense, whilst in common speech 
it comprehends, and ever has comprehended, much 
more than the latter, so that it includes also what in 
modern times is called the cosmical ether. So long 
as we keep distinctly in mind, that we here have to 
do with something wholly different from a text-book 
in Astronomy or Physics, w r e shall no more be 
stumbled by this scientifically incorrect, indeed, even 
positively erroneous manner of regarding and ex- 
pressing physical facts, than we are by the common 
expressions concerning the rising and setting of the 
sun, which, scientifically speaking, are no less in- 



THE FOURTH DAY'S WORK. 117 

correct. The prophet depicted what he saw, as it 
was seen ; he doubtless saw the fixed stars in the 
same heavens with the planets. 

Finally, if upon the incontestable fact that the 
whole scope of the history of the creation is confined 
to the earth and what pertains to it ; and that this 
history gives definite information only in regard to 
what has reference to the earth — if upon these facts, 
the limitation of the fourth day's work to the creation 
of the stars of our solar system is to be justified, by 
our being forced to believe that the 16th verse can 
only refer to such heavenly bodies as are essentially 
connected with the earth, and form with it a unique 
physical system — this reasoning also, is wholly in- 
adequate. For there is not the least intimation 
given, that the sun and moon are here brought 
prominently into view, because they belong to our 
system in a physical and astronomical point of view. 
Were such the case, it would be in the face of the 
whole character and design of the sacred record. It 
regards the question of an existing physical connec- 
tion as matter of no importance, and mentions only 
this one point, that the sun was to give light by day 
and the moon by night. But the same holds good 
with respect to the stars also (verse 17: "that they 
might give light upon the earth.") And it is plain 
that the fixed stars serve this end in higher measure 
even than the planets. 

For the very reason that the description of the 
sun, moon, and "the stars also," of the fourth day, 
is exclusively confined to what these bodies are in 
their relation to the earth, and does not give the 



148 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

least intimation of what they are in themselves— for 
this very reason must we, keeping in mind the whole 
tendency of the record, and its origin from the con- 
templation of facts as they appeared to the senses, 
oppose the unwarranted assumption that the sun, 
moon and starry heavens were first created on the 
fourth day— then first called into being out of no- 
thing, after the earth, as an independent globe, was 
completely finished. As the account says not a word 
in regard to what these heavenly bodies are in them- 
selves, so neither does it say a word as to when and 
how they were created to be what they are in them- 

selves. 

The work of the fourth day was indeed introduced, 
like that of all the rest, with the creative "Let there 
be;" but this command was directed to what the 
stars should now become, and the end for which they 
should thus exist— that they should be lights to give 
light upon the earth. If they had never yet fulfilled 
these conditions, but were now about, for the first 
time, so to do, the words of the account are fully jus- 
tified ; for this relation of the starry heavens to the 
earth, just now being for the first time introduced, 
regulated and established, was as much an act and 
a result of creative power as the establishment of the 
relation between light and darkness, or of that be- 
tween land and sea. Further, it is said : " God placed 
them in the firmament of heaven" — and naturally 
enough ; for as the firmament meant the terrestrial 
heavens, which were formed on the second day, the 
stars, supposing they existed before the second day, 
could not be regarded as stationed in those heavens, 



THE FOURTH DAY'S WORK. 149 

but could assume their position there, only at the 
time they began to assume a significant relation to 
the earth. 

Neither do the words " God made the sun, moon 
and stars," of the 16th verse, require a constrained 
or forced explanation ; for he now for the first time 
adapted them to the earth, and they now first began to 
exist in relation to it. But this by no means destroys 
the correctness of the view that they may have been 
created long before, to exist in their own capacities 
and for their own ends. 

We may sum up the results of our present in- 
quiry as follows : The fourth day's work refers to the 
whole starry heavens, including the fixed stars ; but 
we are not necessarily forced to assume that these 
were first created to exist in their own capacities, after 
the, formation of the earth was completed. From 
this point of view, it still remains undetermined 
whether the sun, moon, and stars, were first created 
after the earth was finished ; or whether they already 
existed in a perfect state before the creation of the 
earth, but now for the first time assumed their rela- 
tions to the latter ; or finally, whether their formation 
progressed simultaneously and in equal pace with 
that 5 of the earth, so that by the fourth day both they 
and the earth were so far perfected, that, from that 
time forth, they might sustain the important and 
established relations which were designed to exist 
between them. 

There now remain still three points to be ex- 
plained:— the relation of the results we have ob- 
tained to the creation of the heavens, of Chap. 1 : 1,— 
13* 



150 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

to the creation of light, of the 3d verse — and to the 
separation of the waters that were above the firma- 
ment, of verse 7th. 

We shall commence with the last point. Ebrard 
and Delitzsch hold the upper waters to have been the 
substratum for the formation of the heavenly bodies 
of the fourth day, but with this difference, that 
Ebrard confines the fourth day's work to the bodies 
composing our solar system, while Delitzsch includes 
also the creation of all the fixed stars and systems of 
milky ways, We hold this view (although ourselves 
once attached to it) to be erroneous. The account 
of the creation nowhere even intimates that the 
heavenly bodies of the fourth day were formed out 
of the upper waters. This assumption contradicts, 
also, subsequent portions of Holy Writ, according to 
which the upper waters are still in existence. 1 

If we believe that the work of the fourth day 
must refer, not only to the formation of these hea- 
venly bodies in their relation to the earth, but also 
to the same as they existed in their own capacities, 
and are in search of a substratum for such formation, 
according to the analogy of the formation of the 
earth, we must doubtless look to the first verse for 
it, but not to the seventh. The collected waters, 
which were subsequently divided into those above 
and those below the firmament, are called in the 
second verse, u the earth" but not u the earth and the 
heavens;" consequently, they cannot have been the 
substratum for the formation of the earth and the 
heavens, but only for that of the earth. If there ex- 

'Ps. 148:4; 104:5; Job 26 : 8. 



FIFTH AND SIXTH DAYS. 151 

isted a corresponding substratum for the formation 
of the heavenly bodies, it could only have been the 
heavens mentioned in the first verse, which (since 
according to § 5, the first verse cannot be regarded 
as a mere heading) were in existence before the six 
days' work. 

As to the relation of the lights in the firmament 
of heaven — particularly the relation of the sun — to 
light as created on the first day, the Bible leaves us 
in no doubt as to its meaning. Light ("or") was 
called into existence on the first day, but not until 
the fourth day did the lights or bearers of light 
("maoroth") appear. The power of giving light 
was not originally confined to the sun, but first be- 
came so when the earth was so far advanced toward 
its completion, that the solar and planetary polarity 
might be established. But as there had already been 
changes from light to darkness, from day to night, 
these must be referred to a telluric action and reac- 
tion, which ceased so soon as the contrast of solar 
and planetary functions was established. More the 
sacred record does not say. More it could not say, 
without compromising its character as a record of 
Divine revelations, and becoming a text-book in 
physical science. 

§ 9. The Fifth and Sixth Bays' Work. 

So soon as the cosmical conditions and supports of 
organic life were provided, so soon as the chaotic 
confusion of elements and agencies was resolved 
into a harmonious and well-established relation and 



152 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

play of forces, the germs of life began to be developed 
in the bosom of the virgin earth, and she brought 
forth, at the nod of the Almighty, all the wondrous 
and varied revelations, grades, and potencies of life, 
which we now behold. Already was the vegetable 
world called into existence, by the command of the 
third clay; and now the fifth and sixth days mount 
up in the scale of creation, from the fish in the depths 
of the sea to the eagle of the air, from the worm of 
the dust to man, ".who walks majestic, with coun- 
tenance erect" — to man, the crown and glory of 
this lower creation. 

The account of the creation represents man as the 
last of created beings, and, since the series of the 
creations as they appear, seem ever to reveal a higher 
and still higher grade of life — as the crown and 
glory of creation. This progress is physically repre- 
sented in the fact that each higher grade of life in- 
cludes within it all previous and inferior grades, 
which have been realized and quitted for a now 
higher one, and is characterized by the addition of a 
neAv and higher development of life. Thus, the 
purely cosmical elements and potencies serve as the 
foundation for specific grades of life — such as belong 
to the vegetable world. The animal world or king- 
dom includes both; for besides voluntary life and 
action, which are its characteristics, it includes, also, 
an extensive and closely interwoven sphere of vege- 
table life — all the innumerable involuntary functions 
of life. Finally, there is added in man, to the three 
inferior, dependent grades of life, the cosmical, the 
vegetable, and the animal, sl fourth, and a higher — 



FIFTH AND SIXTH DAYS. 153 

the sphere of personality and moral freedom, the 
image of God in the creature. 

The Bible represents the creation of the universe 
in pyramidal form : heaven and earth constitute the 
broad base of this pyramid ; man is its unique top- 
stone. He is the representative of all inferior grades 
of life, the unity in which the multitude and variety 
of all earthly creatures converge and find their end. 
Although it is not expressly so said, since the turn 
of the thought and form of the expression is foreign 
to the Bible, that man is the microcosm, the central 
point of this lower world, where all grades of life 
converge, 1 doubtless this idea underlies its whole 
import and tendency. The 26th verse of the 1st chap, 
of Genesis, expressly designates man as the king and 
lord of this lower creation, together with all its ma- 

1 The remark of Theodorus in thin connection : Theodoret, 
quaest. XX. in gen., is very appropriate: "God finally created 
ovvStG/xov a7idvtcov tbv av^portov ;" and no less truthful and beauti- 
ful is that of xlugustine : " Nullum est creaturse genus, quod non 
in homine posset agnosci." Yea, even that Rabbinic saying, 
■which appears so quaint and absurd, " that Adam was so large 
when he came from the hand of his Creator, as to reach from earth 
to heaven, and from one end of the world to the other ; but that, 
when he sinned, God, by a touch of his finger, reduced him to 
his present insignificant stature," — is designed to symbolize and 
express neither more nor less than the same by no means strange 
or absurd idea. The name also which the record gives to the first 
man, Adam, from " adamah" — earth, designates him, if the 
thought be carried over into our modes of expression, as the mi- 
crocosm of the terrestrial world. Umbreit strikingly remarks in 
this connection (Theologische Studien undKritiken, 1839, p. 201) : 
" In the name of the man lay the significant idea that he was the 
representative of the whole earth, comprehending it as its lord 
and ruler, in his own form/' 



154 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

terial forces and all its creatures. His calling to and 
fitness for this princely dominion is no less unequivo- 
cally evinced. He is the last and most complete 
creation sprung from the bosom of the earth. He 
belongs to the earth; all grades of life are repeated 
in him — "nil terrestre a me alienum puto," it be- 
comes him to say, since earth with all its creatures is 
closely related to him — therefore does he become 
their fit representative, and the mediator between 
them and all that is above or beyond the earth. But 
he is also the offspring of God, created in the image 
of God, and thus far exalted above earthly nature, 
and thus, also, becomes a representative of God to- 
wards them, lord and king, priest and mediator. 

When creative power had thus attained its culmi- 
nating point in the creation of man, then did God 
"look upon everything that he had made, and behold, it 
was very good." 

§ 10. The Primeval History of Man. 

The drama of the six days' creation has attained 
its last and grandest scene in the resting of God on 
the seventh day, and his hallowing of the same as a 
day of rest for man. It has thus become a complete, 
symmetrical, well-rounded whole. Passing on, we 
meet with a new portion of Divine revelation, whose 
tendency is wholly different from that of the section 
we have just been considering, but which is no less 
weighty and full of meaning ; in many respects, in- 
deed, vastly more significant and important. It is a 
record which has employed the most profound and 
sagacious powers of interpretation for ages, over 



PRIMEVAL HISTORY OF MAN. 155 

which superficial knowledge and skeptical indiffer- 
ence have fluttered and trifled for thousands of years ; 
a history from which faith has drawn its strength, 
and the wisdom that is from above, ever-increasing 
light ; over which infidelity has vexed and chafed it- 
self in the most bitter and contemptuous spirit. It 
is the foundation upon which the whole structure of 
Divine revelation, closely bound together, has grown 
to a hallowed temple of the Spirit ; it shows us the 
root whence sprang the salvation of God in Christ, 
with its buds of promise under the Old Covenant, and 
its mature fruits under the New. 

The first section serves as a foundation for the his- 
tory of the world in general ; the second (Chapters 
2 and 3,) as the foundation of the history of redemp- 
tion in particular. The former shows us the sove- 
reignty of God over the world, as the Creator of the 
heavens and the earth ; it assigns to every creature, 
and particularly to man, his position, mission, and 
destiny, in the wide and general plan of the world ; 
it points out to him his normal path of development 
even to its ultimate goal. But it designedly and ac- 
cording to its plan, says nothing of what shall be the 
development realized ; for this would be adding what 
was foreign to the present object, and destruction to 
the unity and harmonious realization of the whole 
design. Of proper scientific teachings it contains 
nothing at all. 

The aim and tendency of the second section is 
wholly different. It rests upon the first section, and 
presupposes it. It represents God as dwelling in his 
own world, as a Father and Instructor, and from con- 



156 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

descension and love, adapting himself to tlie state of 
his pupil, and advancing with him as the originator 
and the announcer of salvation. 1 The first section 
represents the work and idea of God in the creation, 
as also the Divine mission and destiny of man 
founded thereon; the second, on the contrary, de- 
scribes the free, self-chosen development and destiny 
of man, and the Divine fostering care, superintend- 
ence and guidance previous to it, with respect to it, 
with it, and subsequent to it. 2 

The history of the fall, in Chapter 3d, is the 
cardinal point of the second section — the fall as the 
root of all woe, the occasion of redemption, and the 
beginning of the history of humanity. It depicts 
the trial of man's steadfastness, or self-determination, 
which resulted so disastrously in his commission of 
sin, arrested his original destiny, and, with the con- 
currence of Divine grace, conditioned a new develop- 
ment, supported by new means and higher energies. 
The history of the six-days' creation, however com- 
plete, full and well-rounded it may be, in itself, with 
respect to its own objects, does not suffice that we 
may fully understand the fall of man, and the dis- 
plays of human guilt or Divine grace, to which the 
fall gave rise. The history of this momentous oc- 
currence, demanded a special, a new foundation, 

1 Hence also God is called Elohim in the first section — in the 
second, Jehovah, 

2 For further particulars touching the relation of the two sec- 
tions to each other, compare my work, Bertrage zur Yertheidigung 
und Begi-undung der Einheit des Peutat. Konigsb., 1844, p. 45, 
seqq. 



PRIMEVAL HISTORY OF MAN. 157 

such as Chapter 2d supplies. "We there learn that 
man was formed out of the dust of the earth ; a 
circumstance which vastly increases the guilt and 
folly of his self-exaltation, by which he would fain 
be as God, without God : and also explains how he was, 
in consequence of the curse pronounced upon sin, to 
return to the earth again from whence he was taken. 
The breath of life God breathed into him, consti- 
tuted him a personal, conscious, and free being, who, 
needing development and capable of development, 
must and could choose for himself, and decide be- 
tween good and evil, and be responsible for his 
choice. The garden in Eden, so full of peace and 
joy, was the place where his trial and fall were to 
come to pass ; the place of happiness from whence 
he was to be driven after the fall, to eat his bread in 
the sweat of his face. The command to keep the 
garden, indicated the existence of a hostile, destruc- 
tive principle, against the power of which man was 
thus warned. The tree of life, whose fruit was not 
forbidden to man in his state of innocence, was, 
after the fall, guarded by the sword of the cheru- 
bim. The tree of knowledge was the chief and 
most direct medium of his development. The other 
trees, with their fair and precious fruits, but aggra- 
vated the guilt of man in eating of the only tree that 
was forbidden him; for they all offered him their 
bounties, if he would but keep from that mysterious, 
that fatal tree. The review and naming of the 
animals introduced the creation of woman, and the 
latter was the condition of the first and every subse- 
quent development, etc. 
14 



158 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

§ 11. The Position and Mission of the first Man. 

We shall now proceed to a more detailed exami- 
nation of this second and very significant section of 
the sacred record, so far as it bears upon the end we 
have in view. 

This part of the record dwells with great clearness 
and at special length on the creation of man, con- 
cerning which the first section gives only the most 
general facts. The chief point here brought into 
view, is the dualism of man, by virtue of which he 
may be said to have both a Divine and an earthly 
nature. 

The germs of the varied forms of life, were im- 
planted in the bosom of the earth, by that Spirit 
which in the beginning swept over the " tohu va- 
bohu" of the primeval earth. Consequently, the 
special production of the vegetable and animal king- 
doms, did not appear as the offspring of jmre, direct 
creative acts ; but merely as the result of further 
formative agencies and potencies, brought to bear 
upon the original germs of life. "Let the earth 
bring forth !" it was said. And as the lives of plants 
and animals, from this point of view, appear as the 
individualized products of the life of ihe earth, so 
also does the life of man. But man is the highest, 
and therefore, also, the unique, the representative 
(einheitliche) product of the earth. Creative energy, 
w r hich thus far had been employed in different parts 
of the earth at the same time, producing its count- 
less individual manifestations of life, now concen- 
trated itself in one point, to produce the highest form 



POSITION OF THE FIRST MAN. 159 

of life, the sublimation of the earth's most noble 
potencies ; and the account could no better and 
more vividly express this fact, in its concrete, pro- 
phetic manner of representation, than by saying, 
that God "formed man out of the dust of the earth." 
But man was something vastly more than the high- 
est and most noble manifestation of animal life. 
The princely form made out of the most refined 
elements and the most noble potencies of the earth, 
was, in addition, imbued and filled with a Divine 
breath of life, whereby man, who on the one hand 
is of the earth earthy, is on the other the offspring 
of God, 1 (Acts 17 : 28, 29) and the image of God. 2 

Man was now placed in the garden which God 
himself had planted in Eden, as his place of abode 
and employment. He was commissioned to dress 
and keep it. 

Although we are told that all the creatures which 
proceeded from the hand of the Creator were good, 
very good, it is clear that this perfection could not 
have been absolute, but merely relative: so that the 
words are not to be understood as importing that 

1 The formation of man out of the dust of the ground, and from 
the divine breath of life, did not comprehend two processes dif- 
fering in point of time, so that man was at any time (and were it 
but for a moment) merely an animate earthly form, like the rest 
of the animals, differing from them only in grade, but not in na- 
ture. But there was, indeed, a distinction in regard to the origin 
of the elements of which he was formed. Two elements differing 
" to to ecelo" — the form from the dust of the ground and the di- 
vine breath of life from above — met together in the moment of 
his creation, and the product of the two was Man. 

2 Gen. 1 : 27. 



160 BIBLICAL THEORY OF TIIF, WOULD. 

man, and nature, assigned to him as an abode, were 
immediately advanced, by the creation itself, to the 
highest stage of perfection of which they were capable, 
and for which they were destined by the Creator. 
jSTay, rather, man was created with that degree of 
perfection which harmonized with the position he at 
first held, and the mission which was assigned to 
him. As man was raised, by the Divine breath of 
life which dwelt within him, from the sphere of mere 
passive nature, into the sphere of free, personal life, 
of moral and religious freedom, it is clear that his 
highest stage of development, at least, could not 
arbitrarily and at once be attached to him, as in the 
case of a plant. 2s"ay, he must rather, through his 
own free choice and action, determine himself and 
develop himself to those high ends for which he was 
destined and made capable by his Creator. In accord- 
ance, therefore, with this moral necessity, man was 
immediately placed under such circumstances as 
would leave him free to decide for himself, either for 
or against the will of God and the destiny originally 
set before him, so that he might freely enter upon 
any course of development which he himself should 
see fit to choose. 

But man was not only to find an abode in the 
midst of nature around him, but also a place of 
employment and activity. He was to be intimately 
connected with it, and develop himself in the midst 
of it and along with it. Consequently, nature itself 
could not be created in any but a stage of relative 
perfection ; it was requisite that it also should stand 
in need of development and be capable of it ; though 



POSITION OF THE FIRST MAN. 161 

not on its own account, but on account of man, who, 
as its priest and mediator, its lord and master, was 
to conduct it to its ultimate stage of perfection, or to 
its consummation. 

The mission and end of man's activities were to be 
realized by his having dominion over the whole 
earth. 1 But it was necessary that he should begin to 
assume this dominion, in the place first assigned to him 
by his Creator. Therefore, the first and temporary 
task to employ his powers, was the keeping and dress- 
ing of the garden in Eden. 2 This is no new, no 
strange task. The idea of having dominion, as we 
gather it from Chap. 1 : 26, is here merely further 
represented, in both its positive and negative phases. 
The object is still the same as before, though limited 
by present circumstances. God himself had planted 
the garden in Eden ; it now becomes the duty of man 
to take up the work which God had begun, and 
advance it to completion. But, doubtless, the do- 
minion of man was not ever to be confined to para- 
dise. Nay, much rather was it to be extended in 
ever-widening circles, until it compassed the whole 
earth — appropriating it, and moulding it also into a 
paradise. Thus was the beginning (the dressing and 
keeping of the garden) to lead to the end (man's do- 
minion over the whole earth). 

Man was to " dress and keep" or guard, the garden 
in Eden. Guard it? against whom? Was there, 
indeed, an enemy already present, meditating the 
destruction of the Divine work 2 The command to 
keep the garden doubtless intimates the negative 

1 Gen. 1 : 20. Gen. 2 : 15. 

14* 



162 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WOULD. 

phase of man's dominion, just as the command to 
dress it reveals the positive. But thus far our atten- 
tion has been absorbed by Divine, creative, good 
agencies. Bat were there indeed, besides, neutral- 
izing, bad agencies in existence, which man was to 
ward off? 

§, 12. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil 
There stand out prominently from amidst the 
innumerable trees which grew in the garden for the 
pleasure and good of man, two of special note, pecu- 
liar both in their kind and also in their design. 
They are the tree of life, in the midst of the garden, 
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 

Mysterious and inexplicable objects! Where shall 
the key be found to the secret mysteries which lie 
concealed under these names ? 

Thus much we know, however; the two trees 
formed a complete contrast with each other. One 
tree was called — and therefore was — a tree of life. 
But the other trees also were trees of life, in a certain 
sense. Their fruits, " pleasant to the eyes and good 
for food," were given to man as his sustenance ; and 
ever as he partook, his physical system was refreshed, 
repaired, invigorated, strengthened. But that myste- 
rious tree was alone, and in preference to all the rest, 
called a tree of life. The reception of its fruits ren- 
dered the continued and undisturbed life of the body 
absolutely certain. The fruits of the other trees, 
indeed, restored the worn and wasted powers of life 
W orn and wasted through the functions and pro- 
cesses of life themselves — but in so feeble and limited 



THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. 163 

a degree as to fall short of preserving for ever the 
wholesome balance between waste and supply. That 
our apprehension of the tree of life is not an erro- 
neous one, is proven by Gen. 3 : 22, where, after a 
judicial sentence appointing death as the unhappy 
lot of man, all approach to the tree of life is pro- 
hibited, "lest he put forth his hand, and take also 
of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." 

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was wholly 
different in kind, nature, and design ; in all these 
features, the direct opposite of the tree of life. It 
was not, indeed, expressly called a tree of death, but 
none the less on this account was it such, or at least, 
capable of beeoming such. For thus runs the com- 
mand of God : " Thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the 
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" 
Still, however, God had planted it in the garden, just 
as the other trees. 

But it was called the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil. Thus was the tree characterized as one by 
means of which man should attain to the knowledge 
of good and evil — but also as a tree by means of 
which it was to be &rcow?i. whether man would choose 
the good — to serve God ; or determine himself to and 
prefer evil — opposition to God. The inability to 
understand good and evil, and make a distinction 
between them, is, according to Scripture 1 and experi- 
ence, a predicate and characteristic of unsuspecting 
childhood and innocence — but of these in their early, 
undeveloped stages — which, indeed, favorably con- 
trasts 2 with the consciousness of sin and guilt be- 

»Deut. 1:39 ; Jonas 4: 11; Is. 7: 15, 16. *Matt. 19 : 14. 



164 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

longing to mature and developed stages of life, in the 
present state of the world. 

But in view of the original destiny of man, the 
perpetuation in Adam, or the race, of such a child- 
like ignorance and characterless innocence, would 
have "been an incompleteness, desirable or allowable 
under no circumstances. Therefore, according to 
this view, the tree of knowledge was also a tree of 
blessings, as well as the tree of life. It was, also, 
just as the latter, a tree of life, of spiritual life. It 
was a tree of knowledge, by being the occasion of 
mental and spiritual activity in the soul of man. But 
the other manifested its true powers as a tree of bless- 
ings and of life, when its fruits were eaten and as- 
similated through the powers of organic life. It was 
a tree of life not only by design, but also in its own 
capacity, by nature. But the tree of knowledge, on 
the other hand, was a tree of life and blessings, only 
so long as man refrained from eating of its fruits. 
The moment he partook of this tree, it revealed its 
powers as a tree of death. So we see that it was by 
design only, a tree of life and blessings ; but was 
in its own proper nature a tree of death and woe. It 
was a source of knowledge, so long as its fruits re- 
mained untasted; and this knowledge was life. It 
was also a source of knowledge after its fruit had 
been eaten; but this knowledge was death. 

Man, in the capacity of a creature, could only at- 
tain to the knowledge of good and evil, through the 
fact and subsequent to the fact of its being discovered 
whether he himself should be holy or sinful, by Him 
who implanted those qualities in his nature and 



. 



THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. 165 

moral constitution, which made his continuance in 
holiness (for which he was destined and made capable,) 
or his revolt into sin, (which was rendered possible 
by his moral freedom), a matter of his proper choice 
and determination. 1 Consequently, we must also 
retain the second sense of the words which designate 
this tree ; the tree of knowledge was also a test by 
which it was to be known whether man would choose 
good or evil. 2 

But does our understanding of the whole matter, 
as we have gathered it from the preceding, solve all 
questions, remove all difficulties, and fathom all 
mysteries relating to these significant trees ? Far 
from it ! Many, very many which crowd upon the 
thoughtful and inquiring mind, and such, too, as are 
of no slight import, still remain unfathomed, un- 
solved. Question on question might here arise, until 
language itself should fail of terms in which to frame 
our inquiries. But the sacred account passes by, in 
all sublime, holy, and child-like simplicity, and un- 
biassed freedom, the host of questions to which the 
reflecting and over-curious mind gives rise, just as a 
child, undisturbed and uninfluenced by the problems 
of the world and of life which surround it, passes on 
in its innocent course, as though they were not any- 
where to be found, or ever to be grappled with. 

1 1 Cor. 13 : 12. ' 

2 It was part of the insidious wiles of the tempter that he wholly 
ignored and obliterated this important and chief sense of the words 
designating this tree ; and, on the contrary, brought forward the 
other as the only one (Gen. 3 : 5) — for thus only was it possible 
for him so to magnify the truth of the sense he alone presented, and 
distort the full sense, from exhibiting it in its one-sided aspect, as 
to involve a satanic lie. 



1G6 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

It here becomes us to lay our hands upon our 
mouths, and console ourselves with the old proverb : 

" Nescire velle, quae magister maximus 
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est." 

But, nevertheless, we may still hope that later 
stages of revelation will lift the impenetrable veil 
which conceals these mysterious secrets, which en- 
shroud the cradle of the human race — at least we 
may be confident in the assurance that hereafter, 
when faith is merged into sight and fragmentary 
knowledge for ever done away with, along with all 
the depths of Divine wisdom and grace, these mys- 
teries also shall be fully disclosed to our minds. 

What we can satisfactorily gather from the sacred 
record, is substantially as follows : the tree of know- 
ledge was designed to furnish the occasion and op- 
portunity for the self-determination and decision of 
man, either for or against the will of God, and which 
pertained to him and was absolutely indispensable to 
him as a free, personal being. The tree of life would, 
in all probability, have completely realized its des- 
tiny, only when man had chosen for himself that 
destiny which God originally appointed for him. 

§ 13. The Formation of Woman. 

Thus was man, at least objectively, prepared to 
take the decisive step by which he was to pass from 
a state of child-like, immediate, dependent life, to a 
knowledge of himself, of the world, and of God : 
from ignorance of, to the knowledge of good and 
evil ; from a state wherein it was possible to decide 
either in favor of sin or holiness, to the realization 



FORMATION OF WOMAN. 167 

of one or other of these conditions. This was to be 
the first step in that history which he himself, in the 
capacity of a free person, was to bring about. 

But there was still one development wanting, 
which man was now to experience. This, as he was 
a free being, indeed lay within the compass of his 
desires and wishes, but not within his power to 
effect, since he was a mere creature himself — it lay 
within creative power alone. It was the creation of 
woman out of the substance of the first man. This 
act first introduced the characteristic of sex into 
human nature. The human being first created was 
neither man nor woman, still less a compound of the 
two. That being was just what the person of the 
resurrection shall be 1 — without sex. But, after the 
creation of woman, that first human being was 
thenceforth man — the woman was taken from the 
man, not the man from the woman. 

The cardinal point in the Divine plan w T ith regard 
to man, was clearly this, that the whole human race, 
in sorrow and in joy, amidst cursings and bless- 
ings, in its undeveloped, as well as in its developed 
stages, should constitute an organic, generic unity. 
Therefore was it necessary that man should be cre- 
ated as an individual unit, so that the collective race 
of man, to as great numbers as w T ere. demanded for 
the fulfilment of his mission upon earth, might pro- 
ceed from this unit : so that, as says the apostle, 2 
God might make u of one blood all nations of men for 
to dwell on all the face of the earth." Hence the 
necessity of deriving both sexes from the human 

'Matt, 22:30. 2 Acts 17: 26. 



168 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

being first created. Not only was all Humanity to 

spring from one pair of human beings, but also, in 
order that in every respect the unity might be pre- 
served, woman was to proceed from man. But as 
man was created a free being, he could be the sub- 
ject of no kind of development — not even that of 
having the characteristic of sex introduced into his 
nature — without his own choice and consent in the 
matter. It was necessary that he should desire, 
choose, and will this change. The review of the 
animals, 1 among which he observed the development 
that was wanting in himself, and at which time he 
looked around in vain amid them for a help-meet of 
his own kind (v. 20), awakened within him this de- 
sire. God graciously met his wishes, by taking from 
him a part of his body, and forming from thence 
woman. Adam immediately on seeing her said: 
" This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my 
flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was 
taken out of man." 

Upon this creative act of God rests the institution 
of marriage, with its blessing: "Be fruitful, and 
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." 
Marriage was the condition and potent beginning of 
all historical, free, personal developments of man. 
It was, therefore, necessary that it should precede 
man's free, moral self-determination, either in ac- 
cordance with or against the will of God; for the 
latter conducted him into the sphere of actual his- 
tory. The decision now about to be made, was to 

1 Gen. 2 : 20. 



THE FALL. 169 

be the. decision of the whole race; the triumph of 
one would be the triumph of all, but also, the fall 
of one the fall of all. 

§14. The Fall 

All was now prepared for the trial of man — it 
could, however fraught with woes, he deferred no 
longer. But under the tree which was to be con- 
cerned in this melancholy trial, appeared suddenly 
and unexpectedly, another and a strange being (as a 
" deus ex machina"), in order also to sustain a role, 
and indeed no insignificant one, in the grand drama 
which was about to be enacted. It was the serpent, 
the most subtile beast of the field. 

The tree of knowledge stood in the midst of the 
garden, (Chap. 3 : 3). Upon the one hand was the 
Divine command: " Thou shalt not eat of it," and 
the admonition : "In the day that thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." On the other hand were the 
allurements of the serpent, and his sadly significant 
promise : "In the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall 
be opened ; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good 
and evil." Between these two, stood man, a free 
being, endowed -with the high prerogative of liberty 
of choice, with the power to withstand his sore trial, 
which under the circumstances amounted even to a 
temptation — but also left free to fall. He may, nay 
he ought to conquer ; for God had in the creation 
given him power and ability for a triumph, and 
had, besides, expressly warned him against sin, and 
threatened him in the event of its commission. But 
it was also possible for him to disregard the voice of 
15 






170 BIBLICAL TIIEOllY OF THE WOULD. 

his Creator, which so graciously warned him and 
authoritatively threatened him ; it was possible for 
him to fail of being true to the destiny which God 
had set before him, it was possible for him to choose 
contrary to the will of the Maker. 

But man strangely suffered himself to be ensnared ; 
he yielded where he should have triumphed, he be- 
came a slave where he should have been a victor 
and a conqueror. The tempter succeeded in im- 
planting base and sinful desires in the soul of man — 
in breathing into him, as it were, another breath, 
derived from beneath, the opposite of that breath 
from above which was breathed into him at his crea- 
tion. And now the solemn drama, upon whose issue 
hangs a wiiole world's history, hastens to its tragic 
end. The woman looks upon the tree, and sees that 
it is good for food, and that it is pleasant to the eyes, 
and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She 
takes of its fruit and eats; she gives thereof to her 
husband, and he eats also. " Then when lust hath 
conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death." 1 

God, w 7 ho so lately condescended graciously to warn 
man against the commission of sin, has now become 
a requiting judge. A curse lights upon the serpent: 
to be cursed above all beasts of the field, trodden in 
the dust, hated of all creatures, and bruised by the 
seed of the woman — this is its well-merited lot. A 
curse lights upon the ivoman: in sorrow is she to 
bring forth children, her desire is to be unto her hus- 
band, and she is to be subject to him. A curse lights 



Jas. 1 : 15. 



i 



THE FALL. 171 

upon the man : in the sweat of his face is he to eat 
his bread, until he return to the earth from whence he 
was taken. Finally, a curse lights upon nature, in 
the midst of which man is to have his abode — a 
curse on man's account : thorns and thistles are to 
be brought forth by the ground. — Man is driven 
from the garden in Eden : cherubims with naming 
swords cut off all approach to the tree of life, — lest 
man should put forth his hand, and take of its fruit, 
and eat, and live for ever. 

The trial and decision of man was the offspring 
of necessity — but not his fall and rebellion. How- 
ever, what had been a possibility had now become 
a reality. The deceptive promise of the serpent was 
fulfilled: man's eyes were opened (Chap. 3:7), — 
but he saw only his misery and nakedness. He was 
now brought to know good and evil ; but with the 
painful consciousness of having trifled with and lost 
the one, and of being sunk into the depths of woe 
by the other. He had become as a god: he had 
boldly cast off all allegiance to the one God, and 
assumed sovereignty over himself. He had consti- 
tuted himself a god, no longer the representative of 
God ; he had become his own master, free as God — 
but this likeness to God brought not with it the 
happiness which pertains to the Divine Being, but 
was fraught with the deepest misery and woe. 

Man, by yielding up his will to the will of the 
tempter, and opposing the will of his Maker, fell 
into sin, and also into death,the wages of sin. Who- 
soever committeth sin is the servant of sin — true 
freedom is to be found alone in communion with 



172 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

God, the everlasting source and archetype of freedom. 
By means of man's freedom was it possible for him 
to choose sin, hut in this very choice of sin he lost 
all freedom to escape from its power. By no possi- 
bility can man redeem himself. 

Along with man, and on his account, nature also, 
in the midst of which he was to live and act, fell 
under the curse of sin, and the dominion of death. 1 
The connection and the relation between spirit and 
nature, mind and matter, was the ready channel by 
which destruction and death were poured out over 
the material world, appointed as the dwelling-place 
of man. 

By means of the unity of the human race, arising 
from the mode of its propagation, the whole race 
fell in and along with Adam ; for he at this time was 
still the whole race. If the root was impregnated 
with poison, it was impossible but that all the boughs 
and branches of the tree which was to spring there- 
from, should be pervaded with the same deadly 
qualities. All subsequent extensions and diffusions 
of the human race, could therefore but extend and 
diffuse sin, and death, the wages of sin, but never 
check or destroy them. 

§15. The Tempter, 
New problems and new mysteries are contained in 
that portion of the primeval history of the human 
race which we have just now surveyed. Mysterious 
and enigmatical w r as the nature and origin of the ser- 
pent, which there took so conspicuous a position in 

1 Gen. 3 : 17 seqq ; Rom. 8 : 19 seqq. 



THE TEMPTER. 173 

the foreground of the history; mysterious its sudden 
appearance, its complete, its inveterate hostility to- 
ward God, its connection with and relation to that 
fatal tree, and no less mysterious the curse it hore 
off from the scene of action. 

Was that, indeed, merely a common serpent, such 
as may at any time be met with in our fields and 
forests, and nothing more ? 

That it was a real serpent, the animal which we 
call by that name, cannot be doubted for a single 
moment. Its specific name, the other epithets by 
which it is designated, and the mode in which the 
curse pronounced upon it was to take effect, all force 
us to hold fast the opinion that it was a real serpent. 

But was it nothing more ? Should not the capa- 
city and manner in which it now appeared, just at 
the critical moment, its consummate treachery, its 
well-concealed fraud, its well-applied tactics, point 
us to some fearful mystery, which for the present 
stage of revelation was still to be kept close ? Should 
not all this lead us to conclude upon the existence of 
some personal, spiritual power, to whom it was of 
the last interest to disturb the designs and the work 
of God, and bring to naught the counsels of Divine 
love toward the human race ? which made both the 
tree and the serpent the gladly-found instruments of 
its despicable designs? 

The view imprinted upon the account, of the iden- 
tity of the serpent and the spiritual agency connected 
with it — let the real connection between the two 
have been what it may — was natural enough, and to 
the mind of Adam, at least prior to the fall, wholly 
15* 



174 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

correct; for then his whole manner of thought and 
perception was direct, immediate, and unsupported 
by reflection. But immediately after the fall, when 
he had begun to learn about evil, reflection would 
begin to assert its prerogatives, and busy itself in 
trying to divine the connection between the outward 
manifestation and the hidden cause of evil. Thus 
even at that early time would it be discovered that 
there had been active in the serpent, or in connection 
with it, an evil spiritual agency or being. It must be 
remembered that very soon, in addition to the tradi- 
tion of this affair of the serpent, as it appeared to 
the senses, there would be subjoined a traditional 
explanation of its nature, and its connection with an 
unseen, mysterious agency. But whilst both the 
fact and its attempted explanation were confounded 
and obscured in the traditions of the heathen nations, 
the author of Genesis took up the original tradition 
in its pure form, and without any attempt at un- 
raveling its mysteries ; perhaps, for this reason, as 
Delitzsch 1 supposes, that their disclosure would have 

1 The narrator satisfies himself with a statement merely of the 
outward occurrence, without lifting the veil from the secret ; and 
this he could well do, as the traditions of the heathen themselves 
supplied more particular though distorted accounts of the matter. 
He kept the matter veiled because its explanation would not have 
been proper for the people of his age, so much inclined to hea- 
thenish superstition and intercourse with demons. It was from 
design and in view of the best interests of that age that the nar- 
rator remained silent about all but merely the fact as it occurred 
and seemed to the senses. It may be observed that the Penta- 
teuch very rarely makes mention of demons in other places (Gen. 
6:2; Lev. 16 ; Deut. 32 : 17). 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 175 

been prejudicial to the interests of that age. "The 
history would be clear enough and significant enough 
to eveiy discerning mind without any such explana- 
tions." 

A personal being besides man — an evil being — 
was, therefore, on the scene of action previous to 
man's creation. Moreover, as God is so unequivo- 
ally called the Creator of the heavens and the earth, 
and all things therein, it is obvious beyond all dispute, 
that this spiritual, this personal power, was a creature 
of God; and further, since, according to all Scrip- 
ture, only that which is holy and good can proceed 
from the hand of God, that this spiritual being was 
originally a holy one — but now fallen from its first 
estate and high destiny, and become evil and sinful, 
by the abuse of its personal freedom. It is equally 
obvious, as a necessary inference, that a history of 
vast power, and pregnant with the most fatal con- 
sequences, must have been enacted previous to the 
creation of man. 

Clear and definite views, however, in regard to the 
origin, progress and end of this history, its mission, 
its design and its consequences, are not to be gathered 
from revelation — at least, from that portion of it to 
which our attention has thus far been confined. But 
further disclosures are made by subsequent revela- 
tions, the investigation of which will soon claim our 
attention. 

§ 16. Prospect of Redemption. 

The human race had now entered upon a new 
course of development, which would have hurried it 



176 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

on to the most irremediable destruction, so that it 
could never have returned and laid hold again on its 
original and high destiny, had God abandoned it to 
its own choosings, had he not taken the marred 
work again into his own hands, and brought about 
a new state of affairs. 

But it was the will of God that we should be a new 
race in Christ : " He hath chosen us in him, before the 
foundation of the world" 1 

The designs and plans of the tempter seemed com- 
pletely successful. The promise: "ye shall be as 
Gods," was fulfilled" — in the deceitful sense in- 
tended. But the deceiver was caught in his own 
snare ; he had derided man, the image of God, with 
the most malicious irony ; — God now derides him in 
return, with the irony of a holy and avenging judge. 2 
The tempter unconsciously foretold his own judg- 
ment and sentence, in those jeering, equivocal words. 
For God had, in prospect of the fall, laid the plan of 
redemption before the foundation of the world ; and 
from this plan, which began to be developed in his- 
tory immediately after the fall, those words derive a 
third and a deep sense, which never struck the 
tempter's mind. Redemption was provided in con- 
sequence of the fall. In effecting it God became as 
man, in order that man, truly and in the proper sense 
of the words, might become as God. 

Man, though fallen, was indeed still capable of 
being redeemed. He did not engender evil within 
himself of his own accord ; nay, rather, it was forced 
upon him from without, but still, by a power which 

1 Eph. 1:4. 2 Compare Ps. 2 : 4. 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 177 

he could and should have withstood. His whole 
being, the whole intricate web of his life, was per- 
vaded and poisoned by sin. But sin was still some- 
thing foreign to it. His very being had not itself 
become identical with sin. For there was something 
still remaining in him, and there still remains in all 
his descendants something which reacts against sin, 
opposes it, and finds no pleasure in its commission ; l 
it rather reproves and chastises the perpetrator on 
account of his sins. And in spite of all want of 
delight in God and in his service, which discovers 
itself in the heart of fallen man, there still dwells 
there an earnest longing after something of a higher 
and holier nature, something invisible — a longing 
which the things of this world can never satisfy. 
Both his accusing conscience and his longing after 
communion with God, proceed from the Divine 
image within him. For this Divine image, however 
much it has been impaired, clouded and darkened by 
sin, has not been wholly obliterated and destroyed ; 2 
and man still continues, notwithstanding the fall, the 
offspring of God. 3 So long as the faintest spark of 
the heavenly tire still remains amid the ruins of sin, 
it may, under proper treatment and with the timely 
supply of aid, be again fanned into a glorious and 
heavenly flame. 

That voice of longing, those fond hopes of restora- 
tion and redemption, are heard,like the echoes of the 
longing and groaning of the human race, throughout 
the whole creation which fell through and along with 
man. For the earnest expectation of the creature 

1 Eom. 7 : 15, 16. 2 Gen. 9:6: Jas. 3 : 9. 3 Acts 17 : 28. 



178 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

chimes in with our longings ; the whole creation 
groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now. 1 

In consequence of the Divine decree, concluded in 
eternity, and resting on the grace of a merciful God, 
as well as on man's need and capability of being 
redeemed, that salvation so long in waiting, began 
now to be manifested, and to enter into history as 
the spring of its movements and the regulator of its 
developments. 

But man still retained, even after the fall, his free- 
dom of choice. And as he had freely taken upon 
himself the commission and guilt of sin, it was also 
necessary that he should now freely appropriate to 
himself the offered salvation. As sin was not irre- 
sistibly forced upon him, so neither was it fitting 
that salvation should be. It was possible for him to 
reject the offered boon, and to persist in that un- 
natural, perverted course of development, he had so 
unhappily entered upon, and which would conduct 
him to final, to irretrievable destruction, as its natural 
and unavoidable goal. His first decision, as he stood 
beneath the tree of knowledge, was not an absolutely 
final one ; since, before such an one could be made, 
it were necessary that the object chosen be fully 
understood, in all its relations; and no less, that the 
subject choosing have all his faculties and powers 
fully developed. These were confessedly both want- 
ing in the case of Adam. The degeneracy of the 
whole man, which was introduced by the fall, was 
not, indeed, absolute, hopeless ; since he was still 
susceptible of being regenerated by the power of 

1 Horn. 8 : 19-22. 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 179 

God, on the principle of previous incomplete know- 
ledge and imperfect development. But the second 
decision of man, which is rendered necessary by the 
offer of salvation, becomes an absolute, a final one, 
since the above principle will no longer apply — since 
the restrictions of the first decision are now entirely 
removed. Faith, which eagerly lays hold of the 
offered salvation, and unbelief, which persistently 
rejects it, stand, respectively, at the entrance of the 
two ever-diverging paths of this final decision. 

The mercy of God, who would prepare man for 
redemption, was abundantly involved in the sentence 
of punishment which the judicial severity of God 
pronounced upon him. 1 For all the curses and pun- 
ishments there inflicted upon him, include, also, 
benefits and blessings. Though the woman was to 
bring forth children in sorrow, still, she was to bring 
forth ; and Adam seems to have had some intima- 
tion of the blessing involved in this curse, for he, in 
reference to it, and very significantly too, called his 
wife, Eve — the mother of all living. The former 
blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish 
the earth, and subdue it," reappears in this curse, 
with the prospect of its being fully realized, despite 
the pervading influence of sin. The possibility of 
salvation depended upon the circumstance of there 
being evolved from the first man, who potentially 
contained the whole race, a human race closely and 
essentially bound together by unity of blood ; for 
redemption was to be brought about, by the Redeem- 
er's taking upon himself human flesh and blood. 

Gen. 3 : 10-19~ 



180 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WO ELD. 

Had God in righteous judgment recalled the blessing, 
that "man should increase and multiply," had man 
remained in his undeveloped unity, he could not have 
been redeemed. 

To labor in the sweat of his face, which was as- 
signed to the man as his special lot, w T as a palliative 
and an antidote against the power of sin. Thus, too, 
even his expulsion from Paradise, " lest he eat of the 
tree of life, and live for ever," and death itself, in- 
volved both a penalty and a gracious gift. For had 
man eaten of that tree, his life upon earth, loaded 
with curses as it now was, with miseries and corrup- 
tions, would have become eternal, and all possibility 
of his becoming released from the consequences of 
sin, would have been for ever set aside. 1 Bodily 
death, on the contrary, which without the interven- 
tion of redemption would have been but a curse and 
eternal ruin, now becomes, through that redemption, 
an everlasting and invaluable blessinp;. For sinful 
man attains to the resurrection, through death alone : 
his body is "raised in incorruption," only on condi- 
tion of its having previously been " sown in corrup- 
tion." 

1 Delitzscli is of the same opinion on this point. He "beautifully 
and appropriately remarks (Gen. 144) : "This tree had doubtless 
the power to completely counteract the mortality (the ' posse mori') 
of man, and to advance and gradually bring into a most glorious 
state his corporeal nature. To have eaten of its fruit now, would 
have established him for ever in his present condition of sad con- 
nection with sin, both spiritually and corporeally, and produced, 
as Dreclisler very properly remarks, a change in his physical na- 
ture, corresponding to the state of his soul, gradually transform- 
ing it into an infernal body, the horrible caricature of the glori- 
fied body. 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 181 

The first express announcement of a coming sal- 
vation, upon which faith might already lay hold, and 
unbelief destroy itself, was furnished by the curse 
pronounced upon the tempted : * " Cursed art thou 
above all cattle, and every beast of the field : upon 
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all 
the days of thy life : and I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
his heel." 

This curse pronounced upon the serpent has, so 
far as it contains a gracious promise to man, been 
very properly styled the proto-evangelium — the first 
announcement of salvation. 

The Biblical account represents the recollections 
and views of the first pair, preserved by sacred tra- 
dition as the venerable relics of a primitive age, in 
their original character and marked objectivity. The 
Protoplasts, however, regarded the subtile beast of 
the field, and the personal, spiritual tempter — what- 
ever connection really subsisted between the two — 
as strictly identical. The identity of the two seems 
to be as unmistakable in the curse now pronounced 
upon the serpent, as it was before in the visible ap- 
pearance and crafty wiles of that animal. The curse, 
the whole curse 2 is formally pronounced upon the ser- 
pent, singly and alone. But the curse was pronounced 

1 Gen. 2 : 13-15. 

2 It is but an arbitrary assertion, justifiable in no possible way, 
to say that the first part of the curse refers to the serpent itself, 
as the instrument of the temptation, and the second to the devil 
as the personal agent of it. 

16 



182 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

for man's sake alone, not for the sake of the serpent; 
it was, accordingly, adapted to the views of man, who 
did not yet discriminate between the visible appear- 
ance and the spiritual agency engaged in the tempta- 
tion. To man, the tempter appeared as a serpent; in 
his view, accordingly, the curse which was directed 
against the serpent, really was a curse pronounced 
upon the first author of sin ; and the prospective 
defeat and destruction of the serpent, through the seed 
of the woman, w r as regarded as a deliverance from 
the power and influence of the author of sin. 

A gracious promise following immediately in the 
footsteps of the first sin ! The Divine Nemesis 
judging the betrayer through the betrayed, conquer- 
ing the victor through the vanquished ! Divine 
compassion hastening to pour the healing balm into 
the fresh and bleeding wound ! 

Man was not subjected by the fall alone, without 
any further straying from the path of obedience, 
wholly to the will of Satan, in servitude and obedi- 
ence. While sin implanted in him a principle of 
opposition to God, he still retained, ever since his 
creation, a principle of opposition to the tempter also. 
God assigns to the latter (this is obviously the mean- 
ing of the first promise) the victory over the former. 
Although man had permitted himself to be seduced 
into a union with Satan, that union was not to be 
permanent. Not friendship and union were to exist 
between the two, as the issue of the first decision 
might lead us to expect; but rather, through the 
Divine interposition and aid, enmity and continued 
warfare, which were ultimately to terminate in the 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 183 

complete defeat of the tempter. Eve, the mother of 
all living, was to bring forth children, and the seed 
of the woman was to bruise the head of the serpent ; 
i. e. the human race, as a whole, was to maintain a 
contest with the author of sin, and destroy the king- 
dom which he had established. 

The propagation of sin is inseparably connected 
with the mysterious propagation of the human race — 
"for that which is born of the flesh is flesh." But 
the same mystery of generation and birth is also the 
vehicle and medium of salvation — " for that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit." 1 

But man can receive nothing, except it be given 
him from above. 2 After he had become flesh, 
through the commission of sin, it was no more pos- 
sible that the Spirit should be born oe the flesh. 
Consequently it was necessary that the Spirit should 
first be born ixto the flesh, in order that it might then 
unfold itself naturally, and according to the laws of 
its own generation and propagation. But this birth 
of the Spirit could be effected only by an act on the 
part of God — such an act as the implantation of 
moral and intellectual faculties in man at the time 
of his first creation. There was then breathed into 
human nature, a breath of the Divine life, a trans- 
cript of his own Being. But there is here wanting 
something of a still higher and better nature. It 
becomes necessary that the Divine Being himself, 
the fulness of the Godhead, should condescend to 
take upon himself our nature, that he might raise us 
from the depths of the fall, to our original and high 

1 Jno. 3:6. 2 Jao. 3 : 27. 



184 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

destiny, and conduct us to the goal of our develop- 
ment as it was appointed from eternity. All human 
destinies or ends, however, depend upon the race 
being unfolded from unity to plurality ; and the 
unity of the race, in spite of its numbers, is a cardi- 
nal principle in God's dealings with it. As, there- 
fore, sin passed from one man over the whole race, 
so in like manner must salvation be derived and 
applied from the one to the many. " Therefore as 
by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men 
to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of 
one, the free gift came upon all men to justification 
of life." "For, as by one man's disobedience many 
were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one shall 
many be made righteous. 1 

It was necessary that the new development, with 
all its supernatural, its Divine, life-giving powers, 
should commence at a point in the old, the natural 
development, specially prepared and adapted for its 
reception ; that it might thence extend itself, through 
spiritual generation and the new birth, over the whole 
human race. When this point in the old develop- 
ment was reached, when all was prepared, then was 
it said : " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and 
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : 
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of 
thee, shall be called the Son of God." 2 

From that promise which gave to the " seed of the 

woman" the final and complete victory over the seed 

of the serpent, there is carefully preserved to us by 

sacred history, an uninterrupted series of generations 

' Horn. 5 : 18, 10. 2 Luke 1 : 35. 



PROSPECT OF REDEMPTION. 185 

of men, stretching through all history clown to the 
time of Christ. These were all characterized by the 
presence of prophetic powers, and in turn possessed 
and transmitted this significant promise as a precious 
token of the Divine good will. They closed in the 
birth of the second Adam, in whom all promises are 
fulfilled. He, as the second head of the human 
race, was to take up again that development which 
had been marred and interrupted by the fall, and 
conduct it to its ultimate completion. He also, in 
the same capacity, was to be the chosen captain and 
leader of hosts in the contest between the seed of 
the woman and the seed of the serpent — it was 
through his Divine power also that the great, the 
final victory was to be gained. 

Thus has this significant promise placed before 
both the betrayer and the betrayed, a long and severe 
conflict — one that is to extend throughout the whole 
history of the world, but whose last, whose decisive 
issue, in spite of all the varied phases it may assume 
during its progress, is not left in the least doubt. 
But we must gain clearer views of the enemy against 
whom this war is to be waged, before we proceed to 
" contemplate the contest itself, its varied phases and 
its final issue. We are pressed by every considera- 
tion to commence our inquiries at once, just at the 
point which we have now reached, and they may not 
well be deferred longer. We shall have to pass over 
considerable ground in carrying out our design, but 
the reader will bear patiently with us, as these pre- 
liminary researches 1 are not alone important in con- 

1 [The reader will observe that from the close of this section to 

16* 



186 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

nection with the special point before us, but are of 
equal weight in connection with the leading objects 
of the whole treatise. 

§ 17. The Morning Stars and the Sons of Gfod. 

In addition to the Hexasmeron in the 1st Chapter 
of Genesis, and the celebration of the creation con- 
tained in the 10-lth Psalm, the Book of Job furnishes 
us with a wholly independent description of several 
points in the process of creation. 1 

God there speaks thus to Job : 

" Gird up now thy loins like a man ; 

For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 

Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the 

earth ? 
Declare, if thou hast understanding. 
Who laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest ? 
Or who hath stretched the line upon it ? 
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? 
Or who laid the corner-stone thereof, 
When the morning stars sang together, 
And all the sons of G-od shouted for jog ! 
Or who shut up the sea with doors, 
When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the 

womb ! 

the commencement of the 29th, the author is engaged in the con- 
sideration of the angels, and other matters pertaining to the ex- 
tramundane relations of the world's history. At the latter point 
mentioned ($ 29), he again takes up the history of the contest 
between light and darkness, having gained the information neces- 
sary to a more complete understanding of this contest. — Tr.] 
1 Job 38 : 3 seqq. 



THE MORNING STARS. 187 

When I made the cloud the garment thereof, 

And thick darkness a swaddling band for it, 

And brake up for it my decreed place, 

And set bars and doors, 

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; 

And here shall thy proud waves be stayed !" 

It will be perceived that this description coincides 
in several points with the Mosaic history of the crea- 
tion : — with regard to the founding of the earth, the 
origination of the atmosphere, and the bounding of 
the seas — all of them there referred to the second 
and third days' work. But we are also favored with 
something entirely new, and peculiar to this poetical 
picture : When God laid the foundations of the 
earth, the morning stars rejoiced together, and the 
sons of God sang their songs of praise to the works 
of an all-wise and almighty Creator. The morning 
stars and the sons of God were hence in existence 
before the foundations of the earth were laid. They 
existed — taking this description in connection with 
the Mosaic — previous to the six days' work. 

But what were these morning stars ? and who were 
the sons of God ? 

The morning stars were, doubtless, the stellar 
worlds, those glorious spheres of light which ever 
spangle the vault of heaven. They were called 
morning stars — not evening stars — because, in the 
mind of the prophet, it was morning when God 
began to lay the foundations of the earth. 1 The 

1 Comp. Schlottmann : "By a most beautiful figure the stars are 
all here called, in respect to the great morning of creation, morn- 
ing stars." So also A. Halm and others. 



188 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

voice of rejoicing and exultation with which they 
celebrated the dawning of creation's first morn, was 
none other than that silent but eloquent language 
in which they still declare the glory of God, as sings 
the Psalmist: 1 

"The heavens declare the glory of God; 
And the firmament showeth his handy work. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, 
And night unto night showeth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language, 
Where their voice is not heard. 
Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
And their words to the end of the world." 

We here, as it would appear, meet with a contra- 
diction to the Mosaic account. For while, according 
to the Hexaemeron, the sun, moon and stars were 
first placed in the firmament on the fourth day, sub- 
sequently to the formation of the atmosphere, the 
land, and the sea, the Book of Job represents the 
starry heavens, with all their magnificence and glory, 
as already in existence when the foundations of the 
earth were laid — as admiring witnesses of the crea- 
tive process. 2 

1 Ps. 19 : 1 seqq. 

2 Delitz.sch (p. 73), as also Hofraann (p. 352), is unwilling to 
recognize any force in the passage from Job, 38 : 7, as applied 
above. " There we behold," says Delitzsch, "the accidental poe- 
tical connection of the great facts of the creation, which are de- 
scribed by the Mosaic record in their chronological order. The 
choral songs of the angels and the harmony of the spheres, refer 
prospectively and retrospectively to the earth, then conceived to 



THE MORNING STARS. 189 

But we have already learned (§ 8) that the fourth 
day's work was not concerned in the creation and 
appointment of the stars to be what they are in them- 
selves, independent of all connection with the earth, 
but only in fixing these bodies in their relation to the 
earth — we are told when and how this relation was 
established. The question touching their first, their 
real origin, did not there engage the attention of the 
prophet; consequently we have nothing decisive 
upon that point. If it be true that we are here to 
understand that the stars were in existence before 
the creation of the earth, the discrepancy between 
the words of the Book of Job and the Mosaic account, 
is not to be sought in an irreconcilable contradiction 

be in the act of coming into being, to whatever period of the work 
of the creation the origin of the angels and the stars must be re- 
ferred." We willingly allow that there was no special reason 
why the poet should here strictly observe the chronological order 
of the different points in the process of creation, and note the 
particular days to which they severally belonged ; nor should we 
be disconcerted were it even shown (which, however, it cannot 
be) that there is in this mention of the creation some inversion 
of the regular order. But this is not the question. The passage 
before us does not in general refer to the creation of the angels 
and morning stars at all. But of this we are fully assured : that 
they ivere present when God laid the foundations of the earth and 
gave to the seas their bounds. And it is from this very circum- 
stance that they so oppositely conti-ast with man, who was not 
present when this took place. "Where wast thou," says God, 
" when I laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ?" The 
antithesis here involved forces us to take the " when" strictly, 
and to regard a recourse to anthems of praise sung retrospectively, 
as the offspring of arbitrary interpretation, and a sorry expedient 
at best. 



190 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

between the facts upon which the respective accounts 
are founded, but in a varying apprehension of these 
facts, arising from their being regarded from different 
points of view, and w r hich may easily be explained. 

Consequently, as we are forced to believe that the 
stars were created before the earth, by the above 
lines from the Book of Job, and as the Mosaic cos- 
mogony permits us to hold such a view, it must be 
granted that, according to the Biblical theory of the 
world, the stars were indeed created before the earth. 

The phrase, " the sons of Grod," is no less clear and 
unequivocal than the above expression, "the morn- 
ing stars." These "sons of God" were doubtless 
the angels, those holy beings which ever surrounded 
the throne of God, in readiness to execute his com- 
mands. 1 They are called angels, from their serving 
in the capacity of messengers and servants of God ; 
this name is derived from their calling, from the 
offices they fill — it is their official name. They are 
called sons of God in respect to their nature and be- 
ing. In contrast to the weak, sinful children of men, 
the inhabitants of the earth, they are designated by 
this name, as the high and holy inhabitants of hea- 
ven, who sustain and reflect His majesty and glory. 2 

1 Job 1 : 6 ; 2 : 1 ; Ps. 29 : 1 [in the original] ; 89 : 7 ; 103 : 
21, etc. 

2 It is to be observed here, that the angels are ever called the 
children or the sons of God (Bne Elohim), but never the sons of 
Jehovah. The name Elohim designates the Divine Being as the 
fountain of all life and power, of all majesty, glory, holiness, and 
blessedness ; Jehovah, on the other hand, represents Him as the 
gracious and merciful God, the Kedeemer and Saviour, who de- 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 19l 

§ 18. Spirituality and Corporeality of the Angels. 

Let us now pass immediately to what may be gath- 
ered from the Scriptures concerning the nature, the 
position, the mission, and the history of the angels. 

The angels are spirits. 1 This term expresses, first, 
something positive, and second, something negative 
concerning the nature or being of the angels. 

The idea of spirituality is the positive phase of this 
term. According to it, the angels are free personal- 
ities, endowed with self-consciousness, in opposition 
to the mere offspring of nature, incapable of freedom 
and without personality. If, in accordance with the 
principles of division which universally obtain, we 
divide all created things into spirit and nature, we 
shall have no difficulty in determining to which of 
the two spheres the angels belong. 

The whole Biblical view respecting these beings 
conforms to this designation of them as spirits, from 
the most essential peculiarities of their being. They 
never appear as mere forces of nature, or as uncon- 
scious, cosmical life-potencies, although they are, in- 
deed, often revealed as media or bearers of the same. 2 
No, they ever appear as free beings, endowed with 

nied himself to save man from destruction, and exalt him to par- 
take of the glory of His heavenly abode. (Comp., for further 
particulars, my work : Die Einheit der Genesis, Berlin, 184G, p» 
43-53). The sons of Elohim are therefore the media and bearers 
of the divine might and glory: the sons of Jehovah, on the con- 
trary, the media and bearers of his redeeming grace. In this lat- 
ter sense Israel is called the first-born son of the Lord (Jehovah), 
(Ex. 4 : 22). 

1 rtviv^ata, Heb. 1 : 14. 2 Compare John 5 : 4. 



192 BIBLICAL THEORY OF TIIE WOULD. 

consciousness and possessed of an independent spiri- 
tual existence, whose will is never constrained to ac- 
cord with the will and designs of their Creator, hut 
is left to choose and decide for itself. 

It is the high prerogative of the created spirit to 
determine itself, and freely enter any course of de- 
velopment it takes. For this reason it was also im- 
possible that the angels should have been placed 
immediately by the creation, in the highest and most 
complete stage of perfection which they were capa- 
ble of reaching, and for which they were designed 
by their Creator. iNay, rather, they were to reach 
that advanced goal, through their own strivings and 
efforts, through the employment of their own highest 
powers. But they possessed potentially and in the 
germ, that high heritage to which they were to attain. 
God ever and always gives before he requires again, 
and his demands are ever measured according to his 
gifts. In harmony with this principle, the capacities 
with which he endowed the angels, were fully equal 
to the task of their fulfilling their mission, and being 
true to their original destiny. The freedom of will 
by which they were to decide for themselves, and 
enter upon a course of development of their own 
choosing, involved also the possibility of their choos- 
ing contrary to the will of God, of their entering 
upon a course of development other than, and an- 
tagonistic to that which had been originally set before 
them, and leading to wholly different results. This 
was the possibility of their revolting from their high 
destiny, of their rebelling against their Creator and 
Lord : and it was involved in their moral freedom, 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 193 

which was at first of a merely formal character, and 
not possessed of those characteristics which would he 
attached to it, so soon as they had realized a condi- 
tion the offspring of their own choice. 

The negative phase of the term "spirits" by which 
the angels in general are designated, does not force 
us to deny all idea of body (tfwjxa) in connection with 
the angels, for there are also spiritual bodies ; l but 
merely the idea of a body other than spiritual — a 
fleshy body, compounded of earthy materials (a^a 
4ux»**v, ca'pi)- "It excludes " — to use the words of an 
esteemed divine 2 — "it excludes all idea of a life con- 
nected with flesh and blood derived from earthly ma- 
terials, all idea of a form of life holding the same 
confined relations to place and space as does our 
gross organism, all idea of dependence upon condi- 
tions of life and laws of movement such as we have 
to do with, without at all denying that the angels 
have proper bodies, and an outward life conformable 
to the nature of those bodies. For the Scriptures 
reveal to us a sphere of corporeal life, in addition to 
and beyond our own as it at present subsists, and 
which, just as our present life, with its " tabernacle 
of clay," its gross earthy character, corresponds to 
our terrestrial system, 3 in like manner, as a faithful 
transcript of the celestial systems, is adapted to the 
nature of a pure spirit (flrvsufm), just as, further, our 
present body is adapted to the nature of a mere -^u^. 

Angels may be called "-o^ara," pure spirits, but 

1 cn^u-oWa rtvsvfjLatcxa, 1 Cor. 15 : 44. 

2 T. Beck, Christl. Lehrwissenschaft, I., 176 seqq. 

3 1 Cor. 15 : 45 seqq. 

17 



194 BIBLICAL THE BY OF THE WORLD. 

not men. For the angels possess nothing of a cha- 
racter other than spiritual : their corporeality also is 
of a spiritual nature, and even their bodily constitu- 
tion bespeaks the spirit. The corporeality of man, 
on the other hand, partakes not of a spiritual but of 
a fleshly character: the dualism of flesh and spirit 
has not yet in his case been done away with, by his 
fleshly body having been glorified and transformed 
into a spiritual body. So long as this dualism still 
remains, man cannot be called a pure spirit, a spirit, 
without any qualification. 

The Bible, indeed, does not expressly treat of the 
corporeality of the angels. This subject, however, 
did not fall within the sphere of its objects — nor 
could it. But, on the contrary, it cannot be denied 
that the Biblical doctrine of the angels presupposes 
the fact of their having corporeal forms, and that it 
furnishes us with many hints from which inferences 
may be drawn concerning the nature and the con- 
stitution of their bodies. 

The words of Christ in Matthew 22 : 30, are spe- 
cially clear on this point. 1 In Matthew it is said : 
" For in the resurrection they (men) neither marry, 
nor are given in marriage ; but are as the angels of 
God in heaven." Luke adds: "Xeither can they 
die any more ; for they are equal unto the angels ; 
and are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection." The unprejudiced reader cannot but 
believe that corporeality is here indirectly predicated 
of the angels, who in one respect at least, are analo- 
gous to what the resurrection bodies of our race 

1 Compare Luke 20 : 35, 36. 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 195 

shall be — devoid of the characteristic of sex. 1 This 
is a bodily characteristic, and exerts, indeed, during 
this mortal life, much influence upon the physical 
constitution and proportions. But when the body 
dies, it is immediately done away with. It is not 
in the incorporeal state, however, that men are to be 
like angels. They shall only attain that high honor, 
through the resurrection, when they shall be clothed 
in new and glorified bodies, which shall indeed pos- 
sess the characteristics of corporeality, but not those 
of sexuality, (somewhat as the first created human 
being was neither man nor woman previous to the 
creation of Eve). That Christ referred only to a 
bodily likeness, when he spoke of that high honor 
which is to be conferred on the children of the 
resurrection — of being as the angels of God — is 
placed in the strongest and most unequivocal light, 
by the closing sentence, " because they are the chil- 
dren of the resurrection ;" for the resurrection is not 
to be concerned in a changing or transformation of 
the spiritual being, but merely in the reformation or 
renewal of the body. This remarkable and weighty 
passage is of still more significance in view of our 
design, when combined with the Pauline doctrine 
concerning spiritual bodies (tfaVara fv^aanxa), when 
speaking of the resurrection. 2 ~No more shall the 
resurrection body possess the characteristic of sex, 
than the spirit (pneuma), to which it is to be com- 

1 Compare Meyer on Matt. 22 : 30 : Besides it is clear from this 
passage, where the resemblance of the angels to the future resur- 
rection body is referred to, that we are not to regard the angels 
as pure spirits, but as possessing extraraundane bodies. 

2 1 Cor. 15. 



196 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

pletely conformed. Hence it is that it is called a 
spiritual (pneumatic) body. It must be assumed, 
therefore, that the angels possess (however different 
they may be from our resurrection bodies, in some 
respects) real, spiritual (pneumatic) bodies. Thus also 
have we obtained a proof that the term spirits (tfvsvixa.ro), 
by which the angels are designated, by no means 
excludes the idea of their corporeal nature. It merely 
excludes the idea of sl fleshly body, not of a spiritual 
one however. 

Supported by the clear, unequivocal import of 
these words from Matthew and Luke, we can 
scarcely be in doubt as to the true interpretation of 
Paul, in 1 Cor. 15 : 40. No one will dispute with 
us the assumption that Paul was acquainted with 
the words spoken by our Lord, and that they may 
have been before his mind, when stating the doc- 
trine of the resurrection at such length and so clearly 
as is done in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. 

The Apostle's course of reasoning in the place in 
question, is as follows : The Christian doctrine of the 
resurrection seems to involve an absurdity (verse 35), 
which must be explained. This the Apostle does, 
by the instance of a grain of wheat cast into the 
earth; the grain itself must become corrupt and 
must decay, before it takes on a new and more 
glorious form, in the plant to which it gives rise 
(verses 36 : 37). Next, in order to show us the 
resurrection body in its two aspects — that it shall be 
as truly a body as our present ones are ; but that it 
shall be a body of another kind — he calls our atten- 
tion to the great and essential differences between 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 197 

the bodily forms to be met with, throughout crea- 
tion. He first mentions (v. 39) different kinds of 
the terrestrial body (tfapg) : such as the flesh of men, 
the flesh of beasts, of fish, and of birds. Thus even 
upon the earth, we find (amid bodies composed of 
flesh), those possessed of the most varied characte- 
ristics. But still more broad and significant are the 
distinctions, when we compare these terrestrial 
bodies with those which do not partake of a fleshly 
nature — with celestial bodies. "There are also 
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial (dufxara iirovpdvia. 
and sntysia) ; but the glory of the celestial is one, and 
the glory of the terrestrial is another" (verse 40). 
As the terrestrial bodies are evidently those specified 
m the preceding verse — the bodies of men and 
other creatures inhabiting the earth — we naturally and 
for the best of reasons, refer the expression, u celestial 
bodies," to the inhabitants of heaven, as proving 
that they do indeed possess corporeal forms. We 
are forced to this view, however, from their being 
designated as bodies (as tfoj^ara) ; for this remarkable 
word, ever and without exception, not only in the 
'New Testament, but throughout all the Greek classics, 
designates only organic (living) bodies, but never 
inorganic (dead) bodies, that is, bodies in the modern 
scientific sense of the term. Consequently, verse 
40 cannot be explained by the succeeding verse, in 
which the Apostle, passing into another sphere of 
the analogy, speaks of there being one glory of the 
sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars 
(but does not call these bodies " o^ara"). Nay 
rather, it must be explained by the verse which pre- 
17* 



198 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

cedes it, and in the manner indicated above. And 
just at that point, as we believe, the words of our 
Lord touching our future bodily likeness to the 
angels, may have passed through the mind of the 
Apostle. 

We may think strange of but one point, if the 
above be the true interpretation of the Apostle's 
words ; and that is this, that he did not distinctly and 
plainly say, angelic bodies, instead of " celestial 
bodies," as that would have excluded all possibility 
of mistaking his meaning. But that expression 
would not have been comprehensive enough for the 
Apostle's design. Heaven contains other bodies 
than merely those of the angels. In verses 45-49, 
Christ is called "the heavenly" (iirovpdws) ; his body 
is both a " spiritual" and a "celestial body;" and 
this body of our Lord, the direct type of our resur- 
rection bodies, is doubtless comprehended within 
the scope of the 40th verse. 1 

1 I must confess that Hofmann's opposition to my view (Sehrift- 
beweis, I., 353) caused me to hold it with less assurance for a 
while. But, after renewed examination, I have again become 
convinced of its correctness, and find myself forced to reject Hof- 
mann's interpretation of the phrase, " celestial bodies," in the 
40th verse, by referring it to the sun, moon, and stars, of the suc- 
ceeding, or 41st verse. The term " ou/xata," to my mind, is now 
as strong and decisive as ever in favor of my view. Hofmann 
asserts, indeed, that a^/xa does not by any means designate an 
organic body, but is antithetically opposed to 7tvsv/j.a. The proof, 
which I hold to be impossible, rests with him. That aufia is not 
so opposed to rtvtvua, is evident from the expression " ow^ua rtvev/xa 
tixov," which would otherwise involve a " contradictio in adjecto." 
(Sop! and 7tvsv(xa are directly opposed to each other, and a oap| 
7iviv\no.tixr i would be simply a contradiction in terms). Meyer 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 199 

If this interpretation be received as the correct 
one, we may find in the same chapter, a hint respect- 
ing the constitution of the bodies of the angels. 
The bodies of men and beasts form the same con- 
trast in connection with the bodies of the angels, as 
that which obtains between heaven and earth. It is 
certainly a natural inference to regard the bodies of 
angels as compounded of celestial material, just as 
the bodies of men partake of the nature and cha- 
racter of earthly matter (to which the Apostle in 
verse 47 expressly refers) ; for the former are called 
"celestial bodies" in the very same sense as the 
latter are called "terrestrial bodies." And as, ac- 
cording to the teachings of Scripture, a higher de- 
gree of purity and perfection of matter, of splendor 

very correctly remarks upon this passage: "Were we, in har- 
mony with the prevailing view, to understand the Apostle to mean 
the celestial bodies (worlds), we must attribute to him either our 
modern scientific mode of speech, or the view that the stars are 
living beings." (Hofmann himself (p. 352) opposes any such 
idea as the latter, and not without reason). No Grecian philoso- 
pher, to say nothing of the Apostle, who adhered to the ordinary 
modes of speech, would have called the celestial spheres "du/xata." 
The modern scientific term " bodies" was wholly unknown to the 
ancient Greeks and Latins. The fact that the term " ffw^a" is 
applied in the case of plants, in the 37th verse, proves nothing, 
for plants are also organic bodies. I still contend that the 
" aut/nata Erfstysta" are the bodies of the inhabitants of the earth, 
(v. 39: men, beasts, fish, birds). The plants, although they are 
called crcopxru in the 37th verse, do not any longer come into con- 
sideration. The Apostle mentions two departments of terrestrial 
euifMnfa, v. 37th : plants, which are crw/ia, but not oap|, and v. 39, 
40 : men and beasts, which are both <ju>/xa and crap|. The transi- 
tion to a new department, in the a^fiata frttysta, caused him to 
drop the plants. 



200 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

and of glory, must be attributed to heaven, than to 
the earth in its present condition ; so also must we 
regard the " celestial" bodies of angels, as possessing 
a more refined, ethereal and glorious character, 
than the " terrestrial" bodies of men. 1 The power 
of the angels, moreover,, as referred to in 2d Pet. 
2 : 11, and which doubtless is manifested in connec- 
tion with a corresponding physical or corporeal con- 
stitution, is represented as by far more mighty and 
influential than that of men. 

Were Luther's translation of Psalm 104, 4 ("He 
maketh his angels winds, and his ministers flames 
of fire") unqualifiedly correct, we might infer from 
this comparison of the angels to the winds and to 
lightning, that the bodies of angels possess all the 
qualities of lightness and velocity of movement, all 
that pervading energy and wondrous manifestation 
of power, which characterize these forces of nature. 
The translation is grammatically correct; but it 
seems more in harmony with the connection and 
the sequence of thought contained in the Psalm, to 
translate: "He maketh the winds his angels (or 
messengers), and the fiery flames his ministers." 
According to this rendering, the Psalmist is not 
speaking primarily of the angels at all ; but of the 
winds and flames of fire. Still, however, the angels 

1 The remarks of J. P. Lange (in his fine treatise: Die Lehre 
von der Aufersteliung des Fleishes, in vol. 2, and of his Verviisch. 
Schr.), concerning the law of the embodiment of all finite beings 
from the material of the place where they dwell, and according to 
the state of their moral being, may serve to set this matter in a 
clearer light.. 



Mi^H^m^^HHa 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 201 

who are properly the ministers and messengers of 
God, as the winds and the lightning are less properly 
called by Luther — the angels, we say, are placed in 
such relation to these forces of nature, by this second 
rendering even, as can only.be explained by grant- 
ing that there does exist a resemblance between 
them, as to their outward appearance, and the mani- 
festations of power they effect through the medium 
of their physical constitution. And when we ob- 
serve, on the other hand, that the author of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews has appropriated to his 
purpose 1 this verse of the 104th Psalm, giving it the 
same sense as Luther does — a rendering admissible 
both as to matter and form (though not in accord- 
ance with the special connection in which it stands 
in the original) — when we observe this, and re- 
member that the Apostle thereby sanctions, if not 
the translation itself, at least the thought it contains, 
we are warranted from this point of view also, in hold- 
ing fast to the points of resemblance before indicated. 2 

1 Heb. 1 : 7. 

2 In connection with the semblance of the bodies of these beings 
to fire, we may be permitted to quote from Beck's Christl. Lehr- 
loissenscliaft, a beautiful passage, due to the celebrated Boerhaave, 
elem. chem. I. p. 126 : Si mirabilis est ignis, in eo sane praeci- 
puum admirabilitatis constituendum videtur, quod subtilitate in- 
comprehensibili ita indagineum eludat, ut et ab aliis pro spiritu 
verius quam pro corpore sit agnitus. Ipsa ignis elementa ubique, 
et in corpore solidissimo auri et in vacuo maxime inani Toricelli- 
ano habitant, omniaque corpora et spatia aequali distributione et 
insinuatione obtinent. As to the wind, in the same connection, 
the words of Christ, in John 3d : 8th, are significant: " The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth." 



202 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

The mode, also, in which angels have ever ap- 
peared upon earth, is in harmony with this view. 
Thus, Matthew says of the angel which appeared to 
the women at the tomb of our Savior: " His counte- 
nance was like lightning, and his raiment white as 
snow." These words describe, not the likeness to 
the human form, assumed but for the moment as it 
were, but rather, that in the appearance which was 
of a superhuman, of a specially angelic character; 
not what was involved in a transient appearance, 
such as the angel then assumed, but that which was 
a characteristic of, and essentially pertained to his 
own proper being. The dazzling splendor of his 
raiment must certainly be regarded as having been 
the effect of the light proceeding from the bright 
and glorious body of the angel himself, — this being 
in accordance with the analogy of what appeared at 
the transfiguration of Christ, 1 Wbeii we keep in 
mind, in addition to the above, the suddenness with 
which angels have almost always appeared, and also 
vanished (ascended), we shall perceive that the 
marked peculiarities of their bodies, in contrast with 
those of men as at present constituted, are these — 
that they are possessed of a more pure and refined 
nature, more resemble light in appearance and 
rapidity of movement, and are endowed with powers 
made adequate to the duties and exigencies of high, 
immortal, spiritual life. 

It is either so expressly stated, or silentty assumed 
as a fact, in all the Scriptural accounts we have of 
the appearance of angels, that the} T appeared upon 

1 Matt, 17:2; Mark 9 : 3. 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 203 

earth in human form, or at least, in one very similar 
to it — hence it was that their heavenly nature and 
origin was so frequently not at first perceived. But 
this circumstance is far from justifying us in the 
immediate inference that their form is properly and 
necessarily one similar to the human. Nay rather, 
it is not only conceivable, but even more than pro- 
bable, that they for the time only assumed the 
human form, in order that they might conveniently 
and effectually hold intercourse with men. But this 
inference may legitimately be drawn from the cir- 
cumstance mentioned : that the bodies of the angels 
are not so crude and inflexible as ours, nor are* they 
so well-defined and fixed in their outline, but rather 
possessed of a high degree of fluidity and mobility 
— that they do not oppose to the wishes of the eager 
spirit, the clumsiness and inertia of human bodies ; 
but are rather the willing instruments of the spirit, 
subordinate to all its wishes, and completely ade- 
quate to all the wants and exigencies of spiritual life. 
Nothing of a more definite character touching the 
corporeal forms of the angels, and of their similarity 
or dissimilarity to the human form, can be gathered, 
either by proof or inference, from sources within 
our reach. 

We have already shown that the Bible, so far from 
forbidding the assumption that the angels are pos- 
sessed of corporeal forms conformable to the mode 
of their being, really demands such an assumption, 
and itself takes its validity for granted. But, apart 
from the positive teachings of the Scriptures them- 
selves, the idea of an absolutely incorporeal being, 



204 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

is altogether irreconcilable with the idea of a finite 
creature. But surely no one would presume to dis- 
pute that the angels are mere finite creatures. 

"Leiblichkeit ist das Ende der WegQ Gottes." A 
creature without any bodily form is wholly incon- 
ceivable, since that which is created, as the created, 
can only work and subsist within the limits of time 
and space, and since corporeality alone confines the 
creature to time and space. 1 God alone is an infinite, 



1 [We here introduce some interesting remarks by Isaac Taylor, 
•which will be found to coincide very closely with those of the 
author. He says: " We must affirm that Body is the necessary 
means of bringing Mind into relationship with space and exten- 
sion, and so, of giving it — Place. Very plainly, a disembodied 
spirit, or we ought rather to say, an unembodied spirit, or sheer 
mind, is nowhere. Place is a relation of extension; and exten- 
sion is a property of matter: but that which is wholly abstracted 
from matter, and in speaking of which we deny that it has 
any property in common therewith, can in itself be subject 
to none of its conditions ; and we might as well say of a pure 
spirit that it is hard, heavy, or red, or that it is a cubic foot 
in dimensions, as say that it is here or there, or that it has 
come, and is gone. It is only in a popular and improper sense 
that any such affirmation is made of the Infinite Spirit, or that 
we speak of God as everywhere present. God is in every place 
in a sense altogether incomprehensible by finite minds, inas- 
much as his relation to space and extension is peculiar to 
infinitude. Using the terms as we use them of ourselves, 
God is not here or there, any more than he exists now and 
then. Although, therefore, the idea may not readily be seized 
by every one, we must nevertheless grant it to be true that, 
when we talk of absolute immateriality, and wish to with- 
draw mind altogether from matter, we must no longer allow 
ourselves to imagine that it is, or that it can be, in any place, 
or that it has any kind of relationship to the visible and 
extended universe. But in combining itself with matter, by 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 205 

an absolute Spirit; He only exists above and beyond 
time and space. A created spirit without a cor- 
poreal form to confine it to time and space, to bound 
its being, and give it a species of form, must either 

means of a corporeal lodgment, mind brings itself into alliance 
with the various properties of the external world, and takes a 
share in the conditions of solidity and extension. Thence- 
forward mind occupies one place, at one time, moves from 
place to place, and may follow other minds, and be followed 
by others ; it may find and be found ; it may be detained, or 
be set at large ; it it may go to and fro within a narrow 
circle ; or it may traverse a wide circle ; and while, by this 
same means the material universe is opened to its acquaint- 
ance, it is also itself restricted in its opportunities of acquir- 
ing knowledge, by its subjection to the laws of gravitation and 
motion : we may then with some degree of confidence, on these 
grounds, regard a corporeal state as indispensable to the ex- 
ercise of active faculties, and to a scheme of government, and 
to a social economy. That which is finite — a finite mind, for 
example — must, as we are inclined to think, become subject 
to some actual limitations, and must undergo some specific rela- 
tions, before its faculties can come into play, or be productive 

of effects There is reason to conjecture (perhaps 

stronger terms might be used) that none but the Infinite 
Spirit can be more than a latent essence, or inert power, 
until compacted by some sort of restraint. The union with 
matter, or the coming into a corporeal state, may be, in fact, not 
a degradation of the mind, but the very means of its quickening 
— its birth into the world of knowledge and action. The first 
consequence of this birth is, as we have said, the acquirement 
of locality in the extended universe. . . The corporeal alli- 
ance of mind and matter is, in the present state, and as we may 
strongly conjecture it will be, the means of so defining our indi- 
viduality in relation to others, as is necessary for bringing minds 
under the condition of a social economy. The purposes of such 
a system demand the seclusion or the isolation of each spirit, or 
its impenetrability by other spirits. . . Perhaps unembodied 
18 



206 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

be like God, infinite, omnipresent, and eternal — "be 
God himself; or, since that would be irreconcilable 
with the idea of its having been created, be dissi- 
pated into nothing and utterly lost. Hence, within 
the province of created life, the possession of a body 
is the condition of all existence ; the corporeal struc- 
ture is the instrument of all activity of the spirit; 
it constitutes a tenement for it, gives it a lodgment, 
and thus enables it to preserve its legitimate boun- 
daries and its identity, — without a bod} r , without a 
fixed abode, the homeless spirit would be carried 
everywhither and dissolved into nothing, be utterly 
lost. Corporeality places a limit or a check to the 
life and activity of the created spirit, and thus pre- 
vents them from being infinite, eternal, and omni- 
present, like the same qualities in the Divine Being. 
But corporeality is also a blessing and a beneficent grant 
to the creature, since it is through the body alone 

spirits (if there be such) may lie open to inspection, or may be 
liable to invasion, like an unfenced field, or a plot of common 
land. But although such a state of exposure might involve no 
harm to beings either absolutely good, or absolutely evil, we can- 
not imagine it to consist with the safety or drgnity of beings like 
man. . . There is some reason to question whether sheer 
spirits could (except by immediate acts of divine power) be indi- 
vidually dealt with, and governed, or could be known and em- 
ployed, or could be followed and detained, or could form lasting 
associations, and be moulded into hierarchies and polities, or 
could sustain office, and yield obedience, in any certain manner, 
if at all. At least it is true that all these functions and social 
ends are now in fact dependent upon corporeity ; and it is only 
fair to assume that they demand a bodily structure in every 
case where minds are to live and act in concert with others." — 
Plujsical Theory of another Life, pp. 25, 26, 38, 39. — Tr.] 



CORPOREALITY OF THE ANGELS. 207 

that it derives the power, the rapacity and the means, 
for the exercise of its freedom and the pleasure of its 
will, for the most complete realization of its life. 
However spiritual and heavenly a nature, therefore, 
we attribute to the angels, however we exalt them in 
imagination beyond all connection with such a bur- 
densome corporeal constitution as ours, beyond the 
restraints and laws of our hase "tabernacle of clay," 
still they are hut creatures, and must ever so remain — 
they too must pay the tribute of corporeality, be their 
bodies ever so ethereal, pure, and glorious, and how- 
ever much they elude the grasp of our senses. 

§ 1!>. Xature, Position, and Mission of the Angels, 

Another point highly significant, and pregnant 

with the most important consequences in connection 
with the position and the whole history of the an- 
gels, is this: that they were created WITHOUT SEX. 
Christ himself taught this in express tenni as a cha- 
racteristic peculiarity of the angels, when in reference 
to the glorified hodics of men at the resurrection lie 
said: l ?ln the resurrection they neither marry nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in 
heaven" ■ The extraordinary and far-reaching con- 
sequences of this constitutional quality or peculiarity, 
can he fulty understood, only after we have taken a 
careful and comprehensive view of the whole matter. 
As a first consequence, it was absolutely necessary 
that the number of the angels should ever remain 
just such as God constituted it — the number could 
neither be increased nor diminished in any other way 

1 Matt. 22 : 30. 



208 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WOULD. 

than by a direct act on the part of God, — and thai 
90 significant a provision as obtains upon earth, and 
one which conditions and moulds all human history, 

namely, that man was to unfold himself through the 
institution of marriage from his original unity into 
a great multitude, should never obtain in the angelic 
world. A further consequence was, that the bond 
which connects the single individual to the whole 
species, could not, as in the ease of man, be a bond 
of succession, sustained by the unity of derivation, 
but merely one of simultaniety, conditioned and pre- 
served by their all having the same Creator, a com- 
munity of nature, of objects to be gained, and of 
destinies to be fulfilled. So far as their self-deter- 
mination and the history flowing from it were con- 
cerned, this provision was specially and peculiarly 
important, since it rendered the choice of one part 
of the species, or of one individual, independent of 
the ehoice of all the rest, so that the fall of one could 
not carry with it the ruin of the whole species. 

As to the number of the angels, we can gather no- 
thing definite from the Scriptures; it is represented 
as indeterminable, far out-reaching all attempts at 
computation. The Scriptures when referring to it, 
groan under the burden of their utterances, since no 
human numbers are adequate to the task of compu- 
tation. Daniel beheld in vision the judgment throne 
of the Lord. His angels, the attendants of his 
majesty, stood round this glorious throne. "A 
thousand, thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousands stood before him." 1 



Daniel 7 : 10. 



POSITION OF THE ANGELS. 209 

The Apostle John, in the New Testament, makes use 
of the same laboring expressions, 1 and a Like swel- 
ling fulness of terms may be found all through the 
Scriptures, when sneaking of these beings collec- 
tively. 2 

There obtain in the angelic world, according to 
more or less clear intimations of Scripture, various 
(jr<t<lcs of position, of dignity, of might, of callings 
ami iA' destiny. There are angels and archangels 3 , 
cherubima/ iUl( l seraphims,* 1 which are further dis- 
tinguished by the terms thrones, dominions, princi- 
palities, powers, authorities, fccJ 

Doubtless all the special terms by which the dif- 
ferent orders of the angels are designated, denote 
corresponding specific differences in the nature, being, 

position, and duties of these heavenly beings. But 

all further insight into the nature of these differences 
is forbidden us, since all the angels, BO far as their 

relation to man is concerned, form one vast and <j;ene- 
ral class of heavenly beings, between whom and the 

1 Rev, 5 : 11. 

* See Gen. 32 : 1, 2 ; Ps. G8 : 18 ; Luke 2:13; Matt 26 : 53. 

3 1 These. 4:16; Jade 9. 

4 Gen. 3 : 24 ; Ps. 18 : 11 ; 80 : 2 : Ezck. 1:10; Rev. 4. 

6 In regard to the seraphims, I agree with Hqfmann (Sehriftbew. 
I. 328). But none the less do I deviate from his view in regard 
to the chembims. Compare my Gcsch. des alien Ifiiwlr.i, vol. I. 
2d ed., I 22, 3, where I have developed at length my views 
touching the nature and position of the cherubim*, and their re- 
lation to the history of redemption, as derived from a full exami- 
nation of the sacred Scriptures on this point. 

6 Isaiah G : 2. 

T Col. 1 : 1G ; Eph. 1 : 21 ; 3 : 10 ; 1 Pet. 3 : 22. 
18* 



210 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

inhabitants of this earth, there exists a wide, general, 
and universal difference. We are permitted to catch 
a glimpse of the manifold varieties of these mysteri- 
ous beings, only in order that the glory of God may 
be to some extent apprehended by our slow and 
grovelling miuds — that glory which ever displays 
itself in the most varied manifestations of life, and 
powers of production and adaptation ; but never in 
monotonous sameness, in mere repetition or mechani- 
cal imitation of previous creations — that glory, too, 
which in the midst of all this infinite variety, pre- 
sides with majestic ease, comprehending the whole 
within the scope of one grand idea, conceived in the 
remote counsels of eternity. Isov is it alone with re- 
spect to man, that the angels may all be classed to- 
gether, as one vast and general assemblage of hea- 
venly beings, but also in their relation to God; since, 
so far as this is made known to us by revelation, we 
see behind all the differences that may really exist in 
other respects, one common vocation, one general 
sphere of offices or duties assigned to all orders of 
these heavenly inhabitants. They all alike belong 
to and help to form the heavenly host, 1 they are all 
the ministers w 7 ho staud round about the throne of 
God, who execute his commands, who are the organs 
of Divine power and rule in the visible world; and 
they all together constitute the vast and jubilant 
choir, which resounds its heavenly anthems to the 
praise of the majesty and glory, the wondrous works 
and ways of God. Not as though God had need of 
their praise, or had created them merely on his own 

' Gen. 32 : 1 seqq. ; 1 Kings 22 : 19 ; Dan. 4 : 10-14; Luke 4 : 10. 






THE FALL IN THE ANGELIC WORLD. 211 

account — nay rather, he created them, constituted 
them the ministers of his will, set them round about 
his glorious throne, and opened to them the ravishing 
visions of his majesty and glory, that they might find 
for themselves, in a voluntary service and obedience, 
adoration and praise, an infinite and inexhaustible 
source and fulness of delight and blessedness. 

, § 20. The Fall in the Angelic World. 

It was necessary that the angelic world, also, no 
less than our human world, should experience a his- 
tory, should be concerned in a progress from a begin- 
ning to an end, in a development — be it a develop- 
ment in accordance with or contrary to the will of 
God — of those powers and capacities bestowed upon 
it at its creation. And it was also necessary that the 
history of the angelic world should begin as the his- 
tory of our world — Avith the realization of a state of 
freedom — with the trial of the allegiance or self- 
determination of the angels themselves. It was 
necessary that they should, in the capachVy of free 
personal beings, decide either in accordance with or 
contrary to the Divine appointment with respect to 
them. Neither was it possible that they should have 
been advanced, immediately at their creation, to the 
highest possible point or degree of perfection of which 
they were capable, so that no further development 
could have taken place ; nor was any constraint al- 
lowable on the part of God, either at the commence- 
ment or during the progress of the development, 
which could in the least remove or limit their free- 
dom, so as to compel them to be true to their destiny 



212 BIBLICAL THEORY OP THE WORLD. 

— to choose that course of development which God 
had set before them. 

The trial of their self-determination was condi- 
tioned by their position and duties as the creatures of 
God. Thus was it to be proven whether they would 
ever seek their greatest, their final happiness, in the 
service of God, and in unreserved obedience to all his 
commands ; in beholding and celebrating his glory, 
in reposing beneath its effulgent beams ; or whether 
they would rather choose to seek their happiness — 
but find perdition — in rebellion against God, in 
inveterate opposition to the Divine purpose — whether 
they would rather yield obedience to the will of God, 
and have his favor, or desire to be as God, and lose 
all fellowship with him. 

The angels did not all maintain their allegiance 
throughout their trial. Part of them misused their 
freedom, and took occasion by it to rebel against the 
will and purpose of God. The whole godless move- 
ment took its rise in the daring mind of one of them, 
who was naturally endowed with pre-eminent quali- 
ties, and who originally occupied a high and dis- 
tinguished position in the angelic world ; but many 
others permitted themselves to be drawn away with 
him into the same daring rebellion and hopeless fall. 
The natural pre-eminence of this leader, arising from 
his constitution and the might of his will, still sub- 
sists, even since the fall, so that the whole revolted 
host form under him, as their chief, a regularly 
organized kingdom of darkness. 

We may observe throughout the whole Scriptures 
a distinction respecting the fallen angels — a distinc- 



THE FALL IN THE ANGELIC WORLD. 213 

tion between the great (einheitlichen) Prince of 
darkness, and a multitude of subordinate, but fallen 
angels. This by no means unimportant distinction 
is, we are sorry to say, wholly unobservable in 
Luther's translation of the Bible. The original 
language of Scripture does not speak of devils, in 
the plural, at all ; it never speaks of but one devil, or 
Satan, of but one prince of darkness ; but it does, 
indeed, frequently speak of demons, of many demons 
(a word which Luther nevertheless ever renders 
devil, to the obliteration of all distinction between 
the two classes.) 

The fact that the whole rebellion took its rise in 
the mind of that daring leader, and further, that he 
occupied, previous to the fall, some superior position 
in heaven, lies concealed in this well-marked distinc- 
tion between the devil and demons in general, and 
is no less clearly revealed in the ascendency which 
he, the Prince of darkness, is ever represented as 
maintaining over those (who are now no longer the 
angels of G-od, but the angels of the Devil *) who fell 
with him, as though they were his ministers and 
subjects. Matt. 12 : 24-26 teaches expressly that 
they all together, since their fall, constitute a well- 
organized and concentrated hellish force, under the 
leadership of Satan. 

The Scriptures 2 say nothing as to the reasons and 
occasions of the fall of these beings, nothing as to 

' Matt. 25 : 41. 

2 Nor does the apocryphal passage, Wisdom 2 : 24, treat of it, 
as J. P. Lange assumes (Dogmat. p. 568). It says : " Death came 
into the world through the envy of the devil." It reveals the 



214 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

the manner in which it occurred, or as to the means 
able to bring it about — nothing as to the outward 
object with which it may have been connected. Most 
probably we could not have understood the affair, 
had an account of it been given, since we are so 
wanting in all definite information touching the 
modes of angelic life, the secret nature of these 
beings, and the peculiarities of their condition and 
circumstances. Hence, perhaps, the silence of the 
Scriptures. But however that may be, this much at 
least is clear, that their fall was not the offspring of 
the being given to them by their Creator, but pro- 
ceeded from a fund "of their own," 1 acquired by a 
perversion of their powers in the abuse of their moral 
freedom. 

But the revolt in the angelic world was not uni- 
versal; they did not all fall; a great, indeed, in all 
probability, the incomparably greatest part of these 
holy beings, remained true to the Divine appoint- 
ment and "kept their first estate." "We are led to 
this opinion by the cumulative exuberance of ex- 
pression used in attempting to give us some idea of 
the number of those "who kept their first estate," in 
contrast with the absence of all such laboring ex- 
pressions when the fallen angels are mentioned. 

devil to us as already envious; consequently, as already fallen. It 
does not explain by what means the devil fell, but merely how 
man was caused to fall : not how destruction entered the angelic 
world, but simply how death entered our human world. And the 
explanation itself is scriptural enough. For it is clear, from the 
third chapter of Genesis, that envy on the part of the devil, at the 
high position or destiny of man, lay at the foundation of the 
temptation. 
1 Jno. 8 : 44. 



FALLEN ANGELS IRREDEEMABLE. 215 

In consequence of the fact that, in the case of the 
angels, the idea of species is determined and sus- 
tained merely through the oneness of their position, 
duties and services, but not through natural genera- 
tion and propagation of kind, the fall of one part of 
these beings did not, in itself, involve the fall of any 
or all of the rest. Still, however, the movement 
which resulted in the fall of some, could not have 
left the others in a state of indifference, mere idle 
spectators of the appalling scene. For, in conse- 
quence of the fact that a like nature, a like destiny, 
a simultaneous existence, bound all orders and modes 
of angelic life together, into an intimate relation, it 
was impossible but that the determination of one or 
several of them with regard to the question of their 
allegiance or relation to their Creator, should force 
the rest to come to a speedy decision also. The fall 
of Satan convulsed the whole angelic world, and 
made it necessary that every individual should take 
his stand, either on the side of God or on the side of 
Satan, that he should fall in with the will of God, or 
with the will of Satan. We cannot imagine that 
there were there any merely idle spectators, who 
sided with neither party. 

§ 21. The fallen Angels not capable of Redemption. 

Thus there came to pass a revolt in the angelic 
world, and it was divided into two hostile, antago- 
nistic parties — good and bad angels. The revolt of 
the latter, their daring self-determination in opposi- 
tion to the known will of God, was absolute and 
final — it left no possibility of a return on their part, 



216 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

nor of salvation from God. Xowhere in Holy Writ 
do we find the most distant intimation that the fallen 
angels maybe converted and redeemed; their eternal 
condemnation was pre-determined from the begin- 
ning. 1 We may not seek the grounds of their con- 
demnation in the will of God, as though God, not- 
withstanding the possibility of their being redeemed, 
is unwilling that they should be, — this would impeach 
the holy character of God himself, as seen in the 
mirror of revelation. All creatures were created and 
appointed to secure happiness, and God will never 
allow this design to be frustrated, so long as its 
realization is yet possible. He has no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked, but would rather that 
they should turn to him and joyfully accept the offers 
of his grace. 2 Had Satan himself been capable of 
salvation, God would doubtless have provided for 
him and his subjects, a salvation adapted to their 
condition. The ground of their hopeless condemna- 
tion, therefore, is to be sought only in the angels 
themselves ; it may lie in their nature, in their will, 
or in both at the same time. 

In the case of the angels, as with all free creatures, 
the grounds of their moral condition or state, of their 
moral ability or inability, must be sought first and 
above all in their own will. With respect to the 
incapacities of the fallen angels, however, as regards 
salvation, these grounds are not difficult to trace. 
They engendered sin within themselves, purely out 

1 Jude G ; 2 Pet. 2:4; Matt. 25 : 41 ; Rev. 20: 10, etc. 

2 Ezek. 33 : 11; 2 Pet. 3 : 9 ; 1 Tim. 2 : 4, etc. 



FALLEN ANGELS IRREDEEMABLE. 217 

of their own will, 1 without any temptation or entice- 
ment from without, without any positive occasion or 
inducement to commit sin ; they themselves were 
the creators and fathers of the evil which now reigns 
so fearfully within their bosoms. That decision of 
their minds which was the root of all evil, was thus 
an absolute, a final decision ; the evil which they 
voluntarily engendered was an absolute evil, conse- 
quently a change on their part, or repentance and 
salvation in their case, is wholly out of the question. 

Although, according to the above, the ground of 
the impossibility of their salvation is to be found 
first and chiefly in their own will, still it may also be 
that their nature is such as not to allow of their be- 
ing redeemed ; not, however, that the strength of the 
former and primary ground should be at all weakened 
or destroyed by the latter. Their nature itself may, 
for aught we know, be such that the decision con- 
nected with it, once fixed upon, was an absolute one, 
one that could never be re-considered. 

Besides, the nature of the angels in itself consid- 
ered, apart from any decisive and final character it 
may lend to the decisions of their minds, seems to 
render the redemption of these beings impossible. 
So far as we can see, salvation is possible only under 
these conditions ; that a new and vigorous life, far 
exceeding in energy the might of sin and death 
already existing in the fallen being, a life capable of 
overpowering and casting out sin and death, should 
enter the sinful creature — that a supernatural, a Di- 
vine life should dwell in the fallen one, in personal 

1 Jno. 8 : 44. 
19 






218 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

and essential union with it ; in order to annul, in it 
and for it, the effects of a course of ungodly develop- 
ment, in order to take up the divinely-appointed but 
neglected development, and conduct it with the crea- 
ture itself to its highest completion ; or, in other 
words, God himself must become man in order to 
redeem mankind : to redeem the angels, he would 
have had to assume and permanently retain the na- 
ture and being of the angels — himself become an 
angel. This effective assumption of the creature's 
nature, as we have already seen, was possible in the 
case of man ; but it was not possible in the case of 
the angels, because they were made by their creation 
itself a fixed and definite multitude of individuals, 
not permitting of increase by propagation ; because 
they were not united together by a bond of unity of 
nature and being founded upon the mode of their 
origin — their having a common ancestor and head 
from whom they all derived their descent. Conse- 
quently, had God assumed their nature, the want of 
this indispensable unity of the species, would have 
prevented the application of the obedience and 
merits of their substitute, to the special necessities 
and wants of each individual. Had God become an 
angel, then would this God-angel have held an indi- 
vidual, isolated position, just as any other created 
angel ; but when he became man, he at once entered 
into the most intimate relation of both blood and 
nature with the whole human race, and every parti- 
cular individual of it. The angels being created 
without sex, it was impossible that they should all 
be derived from one, by natural descent. In this 



FALLEN ANGELS IRREDEEMABLE. 219 

lav an advantage, as the fall of one could not, through 
the ties of blood and natural descent, include the 
fall of all the rest, as was virtually the fact in the 
case of man. But it also involved the disadvantage 
no less, that a common redemption from one Re- 
deemer, could not be extended to all, on the principle 
of unity of race — on the principle of substitution 
and imputation. 

We have here advantage confrounted with dis- 
advantage, so that it is still impossible to say that 
the angels are less favored or made inferior to men. 
Matthew, indeed, Chap. 22, 30, shows clearly that 
the absence of the characteristic of sex, is in itself 
an evidence of a higher stage of advancement, since 
man only at the close of his history, at the resurrec- 
tion, when he is to be rendered perfect physically, 
and in all respects, shall attain to that condition, or 
stage of advancement, in which the angels were 
placed immediately on their creation. The possibil- 
ity of the angels arriving at a state not admitting of 
their being redeemed, by obstinate rebellion and per- 
versity of will, is balanced by the possibility of man 
arriving at a like state, by obstinately refusing to be 
saved, by rejecting an offered redemption, and thus, 
like the fallen angels, attaining to a state of abso- 
lute evil, of irremediable and everlasting condemna- 
tion. The point when a final and absolute decision 
is to be made, which in the case of the angels must, 
both from their nature and destiny, have been but a 
short time subsequent to their creation, cannot and 
will not be omitted or neglected in the case of man. 
It merely comes later in his case, conformably to 



220 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

what may be different in his nature, destiny, and 
development, but is just as unavoidable as that of 
the angels, and as irreversible in the nature of its 
consequences. 

§ 22. The Perpetuity of Evil among the fallen Angels. 

But this ungodly self-determination, and opposi- 
tion to God on the part of some of the angels, did 
not bring their history to its close. The fallen 
angels could indeed never return; but they might 
advance still further on the road to destruction. 

It is the prerogative of a free, personal being, not 
only to determine itself contrary to the appointment 
of God, but also to continue to exist, after having 
renounced its allegiance to him, and further, to 
follow out, wholly unrestrained, the godless course 
of development it may have chosen, • even to its 
ultimate goal. Both Divine wisdom and justice 
demand that evil, wherever it has gained a foothold, 
should be abandoned to its own course. Freedom 
is not given to the created spirit conditionally, but, 
as the idea of personality itself demands, absolutely ; 
and this quality of its constitution must ever be 
retained, even though the creature itself be cut off 
from the eternal source of its being. For the per- 
sonality of the creature constitutes its likeness to 
God, so that, so long as God regards himself, it 
cannot be but that he will regard the personality of 
the creature. God is strictly just in all his dealings 
with Satan ; and even in his case, respects the per- 
sonality belonging to the creature. Hence it was 
neither possible nor desirable that God should anni- 



EVIL AMONG FALLEN ANGELS. 221 

hilate those angels that sinned, nor that he should 
in the least lessen or otherwise affect their right to 
freedom and to existence. 

Freedom of development must ever he retained 
by them as an undisturbed possession ; but in the 
case of a finite being, such a boon always brings 
with it a something else as its balancing and opposite 
pole — necessity. The direction, indeed, which they 
took, was altogether one of their own choosing ; but 
the goal to which it leads, is a necessary one, and 
can never be changed. They possessed fall power 
to renounce all allegiance to God ; but at the same 
time, they must abide the consequences of such a 
daring and wicked act. That eternal condemnation 
which overtakes the fallen angels, incorrigible in 
their wickedness and settled opposition to God, is 
the direct and proper result of God's still respecting 
the personalities with which they were originally 
endowed. 

Also Divine wisdom, no less than Divine justice, 
demands that evil should be left to an undisturbed 
development of itself, according to the laws of its 
nature. So soon as evil came into existence, it 
manifested itself as an external power, a reality, 
whose inner weakness and futility, when opposed to 
the Divine will, can be satisfactorily discovered, only 
when it has completely unfolded itself; when all the 
germs it contains have been developed ; when all its 
powers have been enlisted in vain; when all the 
appalling self-deceptions and fearful self-delusions 
it has practiced, obstinately and of its own accord, 
are completely unveiled and brought to light. The 
19* 



222 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

development of evil is its own overthrow — its every 
apparent triumph is but a new defeat. 

The annihilation of the fallen angels, on the part 
of God, the abolishment of their freedom, or a 
forcible restraint of their efforts in opposition to 
God, would not have been proper or allowable. As 
they were incapable of salvation, both from their 
nature and from the character of their will, it was 
necessary that they should be abandoned to that fate 
of which they themselves were the authors ; and as 
their revolt from God w T as at once absolute and deci- 
sive, it was necessary that it should completely unfold 
itself, and bring to perfection its own proper fruits. 

But so soon as this was accomplished, they 
might, so far as they are objects of the effects of sin, 
be made to pass through their last judgment. But 
they are implicated in and take part in another and 
a no less important affair, which must be brought to 
a close before their final sentence is pronounced. 

"We of course refer to their relation to the earth 
and man, and to the part they play in human history. 
Here also must that wmich specially belongs to them 
— their chapter in the history — be fully unfolded, 
and their complete overthrow T be accomplished, before 
they shall be ready for the judgment. Compare § 25. 

§ 23. The Abode of the holy Angels. 

The very idea of a created spirit involves the 
assumption that there exists somewhere in space, a 
place adapted to the nature and exigencies of spirit- 
ual life, a place where the spirit may realize and 



THE ABODE OF HOLY ANGELS. 223 

manifest its life and freedom, and fulfil its peculiar 
mission. 

Heaven 1 is designated by the Scripture in general, 
as the dwelling-place of the good angels. They ever 
appear as the heavenly host, as the native inhabitants 
of those blessed heights, to which man casts many a 
longing and wistful eye, and which he ever fondly 
recognizes as the place of unalloyed and unfailing 
happiness and glory. The idea of angelic beings, 
and the idea of the heavens, are so closely connected, 
and the correlation of the two is so deep and so real, 
both according to Scripture and Christian sentiment, 
that they can hardly be dissociated — one ever suggests 
the other. 

But the word heaven is so general and compre- 
hensive in its application, that we must seek to give 
it narrower and more carefully defined bounds, before 

it can be taken as the correlative of the word angel, 

in the strictest sense. 

That significant description in the Book of Job 

(chap. 38), part of which we have already quoted 

(§ IT) for a different purpose, sheds some light upon 

this question. 

""Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of 

the earth ? 
* * * * * 

1 [The words heaven and heavens are used in this section) as in- 
deed frequently throughout the book, as convertible terms : the 
word heaven not being confined to its special designation as a name 
for the abode of the blessed, but including as well the physical 
heavens, whether they constitute that abode or not. This usage 
seems best adapted to giving the author's idea, while speaking in 
accordance with common modes of expression. — Tr.] 



224 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

When the morning stars sang together, 
And all the sons of God shouted for joy/' 

Here we have, in addition to the sons of God cele- 
brating the founding of the earth, the morning stars 
mentioned as joining in the jubilant chorus. But, 
according to the well-known laws of poetical paral- 
lelism in Hebrew poetry, it is necessary that the two 
corresponding members, "the morning stars," and 
"the sons of God," should be essentially connected, 
that they should either be identical in meaning, or 
at least, be comprehended under one common (ein- 
heitlichen) idea. 1 

As we have previously learned, the morning stars 
are those glorious worlds of light whose undying 
fires ever light up the vault of heaven. What now 

1 1 cannot but persist in this opinion although Hofmann (Schrift- 
hew, I. 352,) says : " This passage has been perverted for the pur- 
pose of showing a connection between the angels and the stars, 
in the Biblical theory of the world." . . . . " That such was 
by no means the idea of the poet, appears clearly from Chap. 15 : 15, 
where " his saints " are put in precisely the same relation to " the 
heavens," that " the sons of God " are to " the morning stars." But 
it may soon be seen how inconclusive this argument is. The 
parallelism of 15 : 15 does not, at all events, consist in the mutual re- 
lation of the celestial spheres and the saints of the earth. Nay, 
rather, " the heavens " must either be regarded (with Balm, 79) as 
the abode of the saints, (and hence the latter be the angels), or we 
must (with Schlottmann and others,) refer "the saints" to the in- 
habitants of the earth, indeed, but then the term " heavens " to the 
inhabitants of heaven, just as " col haarez" (the whole earth) is 
frequently spoken of the inhabitants of the earth. That such a me- 
tonomy with respect to the heavens and the angels was by no 
means unusual, is evidenced in the fact that both ideas are desig- 
nated by one and the same expression, "the hosts of heaven." 



THE ABODE OF HOLY ANGELS. 225 

is a more natural assumption, since the heavens are 
so universally represented as the dwelling-place of 
the angels, than that the inspired and Divinely 
illumined poet may have regarded the sons of God 
as the inhabitants of these morning stars ? 

This argument derives additional weight from the 
fact that the same view prevails in all the other 
writings of the Old Testament, For the words, "the 
host of heaven," designate both the stars of heaven, 1 
and also the multitude of the angels who praise the 
Lord and fulfil his commands. 2 

As to the physical constitution and laws of these 
celestial and angelic worlds, we need not expect any 
definite information from Scripture. Revelation 
must have taken a wholly different stand; have done 
violence to its nature and object; indeed, must have 
become a text-book in Astronomy itself, in order to 
describe the heavenly bodies to us in these relations. 
But it does, nevertheless, and in harmony with its 
design, contemplate and represent their physical 
nature, in its ethical and religious bearings. 

They all bear the marks which characterize every 
created thing ; they were all created out of nothing, 
according to the will of the Creator, who alone is 
from eternity and an absolute Being. How mutable 
also and how incomplete are they all, when com- 
pared with the immutability and spotless purity of 
God ! Hence sings the sacred Psalmist : 3 

1 Gen. 2:1; Deut. 4 : 19 ; Is. 34 : 4 ; Jer. 33:2; Ps. 33 : 6, etc. 

2 Gen. 32 : 1,2; Ps. 103 : 21 ; Ps. 148 : 2 ; 1 Kings 22 : 19 ; 
comp. Luke 2 : 13, etc. 

3 Ps. 122 : 25-27. 



226 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

" Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth : 
And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 
They shall perish hut thou shalt endure : 
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; 
As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall 

be changed ; 
But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no 
end." 
And thus the Book of Job (25 : 5) : 
"Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; 
Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight." 

But in all instances, on the contrary, where it is 
not the leading design of the inspired writer, to set 
forth prominently the contrast between the Infinite 
and his finite works, the heavens with all their glit- 
tering worlds, are represented as the culminating 
point 5 of all glory and blessedness, of all order and 
harmony in connection with created things : and 
that song of praise which their perfection, their 
grandeur, and glory, resound to the honor of Him 
who so created them, 1 surpasses in swelling fulness 
and majestic harmony all other songs of praise. 

How could it, indeed, be otherwise ? How could 
the celestial worlds be the dwelling-place of the 
angelic hosts, and not correspond in glory to their 
glorious inhabitants? The body must correspond 
to the soul inhabiting it, the dwelling-place to the 
inhabitant. 

If we everywhere find the ange ls represented as 

IPs. 19:1. 



THE ABODE OF HOLY ANGELS. 227 

pure, holy beings, who have remained steadfast in 
the truth, have been true to their calling and destiny, 
and amidst whom life and happiness, peace and joy, 
hold undisturbed sway, what is more natural than to 
suppose that their abode should partake of a cha- 
racter corresponding to these glorious attributes ? 
Every manifestation, evidence, and token of sin, 
sickness and death, gloom and destruction, of dis- 
sension, disorder and tumult, must for ever remain 
foreign from those holy abodes ; every look must be 
a beam of joy and delight, every tone a hymn of 
rapture, and every movement be graced with holy 
love. Countless also as the multitudes of the "hea- 
venly host," must be the number of celestial abodes. 
The being, mission, and destiny of the angels, ap- 
pear to partake of remarkably bold, original, and 
decided peculiarities, of remarkably profuse and 
varied characteristics. Nature as it surrounds and 
sustains these heavenly beings, must partake no less 
of the same marked features and varied adaptation — 
it must be suited to every condition, development, 
and exigency of angelic life. 

Further, as we have discovered that, according to 
Scripture, a characteristic peculiarity of the angels 
consists in the absence of all sexual distinction be- 
tween them, we are led to expect that this peculiar 
feature must be mirrored in their heavenly abodes — 
that every thing which in our world appears as the 
cosmical transcript of the sexual contrast, must there 
be wanting : that those blessed abodes, where they 
neither marry, nor are given in marriage, must also 
be free from all the physical antagonisms and oppo- 



228 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 



sitions, the restless and wearisome play of forces, 
which constitute such broad contrasts in our world; 
and that, finally, all cosmical forces must there unite 
in quiet and combined (einheitlicher) harmony, and 
in this capacity be completely adequate to perform 
all their functions and attain all their ends. 

§ 24. The Heavens as the Dwelling -Place of God. 
God exists above and beyond the sphere of all 
history, yet he still rules in history, and moulds it 
according to his will: He, the unchangeable, exists 
above all changes in the created world, yet still does 
he involve himself in all the changes which his crea- 
tures experience, in order to prepare them for and 
raise them to his unchangeable state, to a state of 
absolute, inalienable completeness and blessedness. 
He condescends to the low- condition of his pupil, 
grows with him to the height of His manifestation 
in the creature, so that the latter may be fully pre- 
pared to take part in the glory and blessedness of 
Deity, so that He who is alone holy and blessed, 
may be all in all. 1 

We have contemplated angels and men with 
respect to their position and mission ; we have con- 
sidered the heavens as the dwelling-place of the 
angels, the earth as the abode of man ; and finally, 
we have learned the essential features of the relation 
these two portions of the universe hold towards each 
other. It yet remains to discover the relation of both 
to God, and the relation God holds towards them. 

The heaven is the throne of God, and the earth is his 

il Cor. 15 -.28. 



THE DWELLING-PLACE OF GOD. 229 

foot-stool, according to the Scriptures. 1 We likewise 
are taught to pray: " Our father, who art in heaven." 
"We are told that Christ, who himself was Divine and 
from the bosom of the Father, passed into the heavens, 
so soon as his w T ork on earth was accomplished, re- 
turning to the Father again that he might take pos- 
session of the throne of glory. Hence we must infer 
that the being of God is present in and dwells in the 
heavens, in an eminently proper sense. 

The word heaven involves, first, the idea of place, 
and second, the idea of state or condition. Accord- 
ing to the first idea, which is specially prominent in 
the original Hebrew word (the height, high), this bring- 
ing together of heaven and earth, expresses the con- 
trast involved in the expression, upper and lower. 
The idea contained in this expression, is in and of 
itself, indeed, ethically, of no significance, as in a 
physical sense it is merely a relative idea. But when 
the soul, created for communion with God, is unable 
to find on earth what it stands in need of, and what 
it yearns after, then does it cast its longing glances 
upward. See we ourselves here surrounded with sins 
and miseries, then do we there above seek holiness 
and happiness. Thus does this idea come to have an 
ethical significance (though in itself it possess none), 
and the ideas of place and of state coincide — place 
and state become convertible terms. Heaven is not 
the place of perfect happiness, merely because it is 
the abode of the blessed, but also because it forms 
such a wide contrast with the earth, because it is a 
place so sublimely transcending our earthly abode. 

1 Is. 66 : 1 ; Matt. 5 : 34, 35. 
20 



230 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

The earth is the theatre for the developments of sin 
and death, of discord and destruction ; heaven is the 
blessed abode of holiness, of tranquil peace and 
eternal joy. Earth is the near, the present, the com- 
mon, the finite, the sensible ; heaven is the distant, 
the absent, the sublime, the unattainable, the super- 
sensible, the infinite, in the conception of which we 
abstract in our minds all that is or may be known 
through the medium of the senses, all relations or 
conditions which obtain here on earth, just as we do 
in our attempts to form a conception of God. 

Thus are the heavens ever represented as standing 
in a closer relation to God than the earth. God is 
omnipresent, but he is also wholly separate from sin- 
ners ; according to the one idea he is upon earth just 
as really as he is in heaven ; but, according to the 
other, he is distant from and infinitely exalted above 
it — he is in heaven. Happiness and holiness consti- 
tute the being of God ; the more intensively these 
attributes anywhere prevail, there must we suppose 
God to be more specially present. The earth pre- 
sents everywhere to our view, the melancholy aspects 
of sin and of death ; heaven is the abode of the 
angels, where undisturbed harmony and unalloyed 
happiness ever prevail ; hence must we suppose that 
God is there more concretely, as it were, more power- 
fully present — heaven being his throne and the earth 
his footstool. 

Moreover, God is not afar off, he lives in all things, 
and they exist only in so far as He sustains and pre- 
serves them. There are tokens of the Divine pres- 
ence in every blade of grass: He is the ever Imma- 



THE DWELLING-PLACE OF GOD. 231 

nent. Iii liim we live and move and have our being, 
and He it is who gives to all creatures, life and 
breath and all things. 1 But he is also a God afar 
off; He is the Infinite One, highly exalted beyond 
all finite things, separated from them, and different 
from them. If heaven be to us, in its relation to the 
earth, the far distant, the sublime, the supersensible, 
in a measure the infinite, then does it in this respect 
stand in a closer relation to God than our earth. 

But we have not done yet. The greatest intensity 
of his presence, the greatest power of the actual 
Divine presence, lies beyond the utmost limits of 
sense — beyond creation — for here it cannot be con- 
tained. Yonder above is the place where God abso- 
lutely dwells, in the heaven of heavens, the most 
holy place, from whence Christ came forth, and to 
which he returned, in order to appear in the pres- 
ence of God for us; 2 the third heaven, into which 
Paul was caught up, and where he heard unspeakable 
words, which it was not lawful for man to utter. 3 
There it is that God dwells in light that no man can 
approach unto. 4 

Beyond all doubt there is such a being and such a 
dwelling of God, infinitely exalted above the bounds 
of sense and finite creation ; for the heaven, even 
the heaven of heavens, all of which He has created, 
cannot contain him; 5 and however great and perfect 
the holiness and purity of the angels and their habi- 
tations may be, still this is merely a relative perfec- 
tion, and cannot bear comparison with absolute, with 

1 Acts 17. 2 Heb. 9 : 24. 3 2 Cor. 12 : 2. 

4 1 Tim. 6: 16. 5 1 Kings 8 : 27. 



232 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

infinite perfection. Hence it is said: "Behold, he 
putteth no trust in his saints ; yea, the heavens are 
not clean in his sight." 1 

§ 25. Retrospective View of the primeval History of the 
Earth and Man. 

In the consideration of the primeval Biblical his- 
tory, 2 we left several significant inquiries unanswered. 
Since that time we have gathered much new infor- 
mation, from subsequent revelations. May we not, 
perhaps, find in it the key to a deeper insight into 
that history ? 

Although we learned, in the consideration of the 
fall of man, that the tempter who appeared as a 
serpent and was cursed as a serpent, must have been 
a personal spiritual being, we had there to be satis- 
fied with merely raising questions concerning the 
nature, the being, the position and character of this 
mysterious personality. But we are now no longer 
in doubt as to who and what that tempter was that 
appeared by the tree of knowledge. 

Besides such fact, however, the subsequent stages 
of Divine disclosures, bear the clearest and most 
decisive witness to the true character of this being. 
Christ himself says of the devil, that he is "a mur- 
derer from the beginning," since he brought sin into 
the world, and death by sin. In the Revelation of 
John (chap. 12 : 9), he is characterized as "the old 
serpent" which deceiveth the whole world. Compare 
? lst John 3:8; 2 Cor. 11 : 3 ; Rev. 20 : 2, &c. 

If it be true that the serpent, by whom man was 

1 Job 15 : 15. ■ Gen. 1-3. 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 233 

betrayed, so soon as he essayed to employ the powers 
God had given him, was closely and essentially con- 
nected with the prince of the fallen angels — whether 
as his instrument, image, or representative — we have 
in this history some data toward fixing the time of 
the fall of this prince of darkness. We find him 
hanging about the cradle of human history, with his 
malignant opposition to God already fully developed. 
Hence we may at least conclude, that his fall was 
previous to the fall of man ; and, as the latter took 
place when man first employed his free will, that it 
was also previous to the creation of man. Still further, 
there is every reason for supposing that this catas- 
trophe in the angelic world happened very soon after 
the creation of the angels themselves. For, as the 
probation of man, the test of his course in relation 
to the will of God, stood at the beginning of human 
history, and first called into exercise his powers of 
choice, so also was it with the angels — their history 
also commenced in a corresponding probation. 

As we have inquired concerning the time of their 
fall, so also may we inquire after its place. That this 
catastrophe happened in some particular place in the 
universe, is involved in the very idea of a creature — 
a being that can realize and manifest its life only in 
time and in space. We are fully warranted in the 
assertion, that the fall of the angels must have left 
corresponding traces of ruin in material nature, in 
the midst of which they dwelt and where they exer- 
cised their power ; and that these traces would be the 
more marked and significant, the more important the 
position of the rebels, the more portentous and far- 
20* 



234 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

reaching in its consequences the catastrophe of the 
fall. Our authority for this assertion is the intimate 
and essential connection between spirit and nature, 
mind and matter. 

The fallen angels appear at the commencement of 
the human race, as confirmed rebels against the 
authority of God ; consequently, the traces of that 
desolating catastrophe must be sought in times an- 
terior to the existence of man. 

Taking up the Divine record, our eyes immediately 
light upon that enigmatical "tohu va holm" that 
description of a waste and desolate condition, and of 
darkness, which reigned over the earth as it appeared 
for the first time to the eyes of the prophet, anterior 
to the six days' work. 

Have we not here found just what we have been 
in search of, a waste and desolate condition such as 
we might expect, and appearing at the very time we 
should expect it must have taken place ? 

^SVe were previously compelled (§ 6,) to pass by 
this puzzling hieroglyphic of primeval history, with- 
out being able to interpret it, without being able to 
fathom and comprehend its origin and true import. 
But since that time, our stock of knowledge has been 
vastly increased, by continual drafts upon revelation 
— perhaps we may now be prepared to grapple with 
the problem. 

"We discovered previously, when our inquiring 
minds dwelt upon this expression, (but without ar- 
riving at any satisfactory conclusion), that the words 
" tohu va bohu," wherever else they appear, designate, 
beyond all doubt, a positive devastation and desolation, 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 235 

which has succeeded to previous life and fmitfulness. 
This very fact involves the probability at least, if not 
the necessity, that these words should be interpreted 
in the same sense here also. 

Nor could we formerly conceal from our minds 
the fact, that the words " the earth ivas without form 
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep ;" 
if interpreted wholly upon their own merits, much 
more naturally and appositely refer to a devastation 
of some work of God, which has taken place since 
its creation, than to a work not yet completely finished, 
one still devoid of the higher cosmical attributes — 
light and life. For a Divine work, as then remarked, 
though it be not completely formed and. advanced to 
the stage of perfection, must, according to the mea- 
sure of its completeness and capacity, reflect a Divine 
harmony and order, light and life. 

From that point of view even, we could not avoid 
regarding it as probable, that this dark, waste, and 
barren condition of the primeval earth, was the 
result of a desolating and devastating process brought 
to bear upon a world originally full of harmony and 
teeming with life. But while we there inclined to 
this view as the correct one, the necessary data were 
still wanting, from which to gather clear views of the 
origin, nature, and historical bearings of this assumed 
devastating process. 

But we have here found, in the fall of the angels, 
the data that were previously wanting. We there 
discovered a waste and desolate condition of the earth, 
for which we could in no way find an author, but by 
the present interpretation — here we have found a 



236 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

destroyer, for whom we cannot otherwise find a cor- 
responding destruction ! There, darkness enshroud- 
ing the wild chaos, a dreary waste, an uninhabited 
solitude; here, a kingdom of darkness, spirits of the 
abyss, of confusion and destruction. Xo less do the 
two coincide with respect to time ; for both appear 
previous to the creation of man, previous to the six 
days' work. 1 

Since now all the evidences of the two facts, the 
fall of the angels and the desolating of the primeval 
earth, so perfectly coincide, we are not only justified 
in holding the two to be essentially connected, but 
almost forced so to do, and to regard the " tohu va 
hohu" of Gen. 1, 2, as a consequence of the revolt in 
the angelic world. And we would still further re- 
mark that, with the aid of this assumption, and with 
it alone, many other perplexing inquiries can be satis- 
factorily answered, and many problems in the history 
of the human race find their proper and long-sought 
solution — that an unexpected light bursts forth from 

1 The view here defended is by no means of modern origin. So 
long ago as in the tenth century, it was said by Edgar, king of 
England, in confirmation of the law of Oswald : " As God drove 
the angels from the earth, after their fall, whereupon the latter 
was changed into a chaos, so has he now placed kings upon the 
earth, that justice might obtain here below. " Comp. Tholuck: 
Vermis. Schr. II, 230. The same view subsequently and continu- 
ously received favor, and is now held by very many. And not 
only Theosophists are addicted to it, and interpreters tainted with 
theosophy, such as J. Bohme, St. Martin, J. M. Hahn, Fr. von 
Meyer, Hamberger, and the like ; but also, such safe and consider- 
ate authors as Reichel, Stier, G. H. von Schubert, Kniewel, 
Drechsler, Rudelbach, Guericke, M. Baumgarten, Lebeau. A. 
"Wagner, and many others, have expressed themselves in its favor. 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 237 

this fresh and important acquisition to our know- 
ledge, and is shed over many obscure points in the 
circle of our religious ideas. This shall be so clearly 
seen as we proceed with our inquiry, that all doubts 
and scruples as to the legitimacy and admissibility 
of our combinations and deductions, which may still 
for the present be left out of the question, must com- 
pletely vanish. 

Thus we find an earth even in pre-aclamite times, 
and, no less, a history unfolding itself upon and 
with respect to this earth. The prophet who con- 
ceived this primeval history, beheld the earth as 
" without form and void" — a barren and dreary 
waste. This waste and void condition was preceded 
by a state of order, light and life, such as it is fitting 
every Divine work should possess : and it was like- 
wise followed by a Divine restitution, in the work of 
the six days, which called forth light from darkness, 
order and teeming life from the dreary and barren 
waste ; which constituted the earth as it at present 
subsists, established order upon, and filled it with 
abundance of life. 1 

1 The arguments of Hofraann (Schriftbew, I, p. 238, 242) and 
Delitzsch (Genesis, p. 63,) do not affect the point at issue. I have 
not asserted that the " tohu va bohu" of the second verse of tho 
Bible, can designate only & positive devastation and desolation. 
Nor have I admitted the correctness of the translation : " And the 
earth became waste and desolate." Nay, rather, I have openly 
opposed the one as well as the other. And further, I have not 
wrung my view out of the first chapter of Genesis ; but have ex- 
pressly conceded, that neither he who first conceived this chapter, 
nor he who subsequently incorporated it into the Scriptures, may 
have discovered in the " tohu va bohu " what I do. My view rests 



238 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

The devastation was a consequence of the fall of 
the angels, and from this we further conclude that 
the primeval earth was the habitation of the angels, 
and the place of their probation — of that part of 

alone upon a combination of Gen. 1 : 2, with the facts supplied us 
in the later stages of revelation. I do not claim for it the author- 
ity of revealed truth, nor yet the character of a necessary conse- 
quence. It is a hypothesis, a conjecture, and still remains such, 
claiming only probability, and not certainty. I have become at- 
tached to it, because it satisfactorily solves many heretofore inex- 
plicable and connected problems of Scripture and natural science ; 
because it, in my view, places the development -history of the 
whole Cosmos, under a single point of view, etc. As to the fur- 
ther remarks of Delitzsch in opposition to my view, they do not 
affect it in the least. He says : " The account of the creation 
speaks, to the unbiassed mind, of the creation of the universe," 
(granted ! but of the creation of the universe only so far as it 
stands related to the earth), "and not of the mere re-creation of the 
earth and its solar system" (I have not spoken of an actual re- 
creation being taught in the record, but merely of the enlivening 
and individualization of a waste and barren chaos. If we may 
be permitted, from the facts of subsequent revelation, to look 
upon this chaos as the residuum of a previous creation, now 
destroyed, theft may we properly enough call what is mentioned 
from the 3rd verse forward, a " re-creation/' or as I have desig- 
nated it, a "restitution or new-creation." In the second edition 
of this work, I gave up the idea that the solar system was com- 
prehended in this new-creation). Delitzsch continues, but to no 
purpose: " The cosmological traditions not pertaining to the Israel- 
ties, which should here be taken into consideration, say nothing in 
regard to a chaos caused by the fall of the angels." Whether the 
traditions of the heathen should here be taken into the account or 
not, I shall not stop to determine. For the present it may be admit- 
ted that they should. But what is the consequence? Nothing 
further than that those traditions, in the times of Moses, knew no 
more of a chaos produced by the fall of the angels, than did the 
Israelitish tradition itself; that such knowledge was unknown to 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 239 

them which rebelled against God, lost their dominion 
by revolt, and were driven from their abodes upon 
the earth. In the same degree, obviously, that the 
fallen angels prior to their fall, had a like being and 
destiny with the rest of the angels, like capacities, 
and were included with them under one common 
idea of species — in the same degree must the mu- 
tual abodes of all these beings have been of a like 
nature. And as there is in general no distinction as 
to species made between the former and the latter, so 
also must the primeval earth, in its original and un- 
injured state, have been in general and conformably 
to the laws of classification, similar in character, 
nature, and adaptation, to the other celestial worlds. 
The restitution of the earth, on the contrary, was 
the offspring of a decree of the Divine mind, by 
which the plan with respect to this earth was to be 
saved from being subverted ; by means of which 
God was to raise a whole world of life from the 
Hoods of destruction in which it had fallen, banish 
the destroyer into exile, and place in his stead, man, 
anew inhabitant and lord of the earth. From this 
we further conclude, that man has taken the place 
of Satan and his angels, to complete their unper- 
formed task, to finish their discontinued mission, to 
restore the disturbed harmony of the universe, the 

all the original traditions, as it could only arise in subsequent 
times, from the combination of the various facts of revelation. 
Delitzsch then opposes to my hypothesis, one of his own, in which 
he pretends to retain what of truth belongs to mine, and at the 
same time to avoid its faults and errors. The most striking point 
in his hypothesis, to my mind, is that it is in all respects unten- 
able. 



240 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

marred beauty and proportion of the whole : that 
man has been appointed to conquer and judge the 
destroyer, the great rebel in God's universe. "Know 
ye not," says the Apostle Paul, 1 " that the saints 
shall judge the world ? knoiv ye not that we shall judge 
angels?" 

Man was thus placed in the very part of the uni- 
verse, where he must receive the gaze of all eyes ; 
in that place which was, perhaps, from its original 
nature and destiny, the most important of all places 
in space, — at least, from what had already occurred 
there, and quite as much from what is yet here to 
pass before the eyes of a wondering world, a place 
that had acquired a most prominent position, a sur- 
passing importance. All further developments of 
the histoiy of the universe now depended upon his 
behavior, upon his decision and his history. 

But the rebels who were the authors of that dis- 
turbance of the Divine plan, which was now to be 
allayed, have been shut out from their original 
abodes, so far as the restitution of the earth has 
given it a character not conformable to their nature 
and modes of being. Their element is darkness, 
waste and desert places ; hence when the creative 
word of God said: "Let there be light!" they fled 
hastily away — they fled, when at the command of 
the Almighty, the chaotic confusion was resolved 
into harmonious order, when the barren and lifeless 
wastes were made to teem with new and happy life. 

But since the beginning, indeed, of the new de- 
velopment in the world, has been brought about, but 

1 1 Cor. G : 2, 3. 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 241 

not its absolute completion, the fallen angels still 
remain a power not fully subdued. Ideally (by the 
decree of God) they may be fully vanquished, but 
not really (by the act of man). They have been 
driven from their original habitations, their province 
has been given to another lord ; but their claims to 
it, though in themselves futile, may still be annoy- 
ingly pressed, until their worthlessness is fully ex- 
posed ; until the voice of history proclaims that their 
whole project has resulted in a most signal failure ; 
until they receive, after the purifying fires of the last 
judgment, 1 all that properly belongs to them — the 
dross that remains — and be consigned with their 
possessions to the prison of hell, whose adamantine 
walls stand ever firm. 2 

Their interest in the affairs of earth, their hostility 
toward man, to whom the province they have lost, 
but still claim, has been presented ; and who has been 
called to bring about that judgment 3 over them to 
which they have already, in idea, been subjected, — 
may all be satisfactorily accounted for from our 
present stand-point. From hence we see in its pro- 
per light, the significance of the earth, as the histo- 
rical central-point of the universe, where the great 
contest between good and evil is to take place, where 
the pending fate of worlds is to be decided : from 
hence we can see how the whole universe may not 
be brought into its most perfect state, until the earth 
has been recovered and perfected. No longer does 
the intimate connection between heaven and earth, 
everywhere pre-supposed in Scripture, appear as an 

1 2 Pet. 3 : 10. 2 Rev. 20 : 9, 10. 3 1 Cor, 6 : 3. 

21 



242 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WO ELD. 

inexplicable mystery : no longer does it appear as 
the result of mere accident or arbitrary appointment, 
that the earth has become the central-point of the 
universe, the theatre of the most glorious manifesta- 
tions of Deity, yea, even of the Incarnation of the 
Son of God. Here, too, may we discover how the 
incarnation may result to the benefit, not of our poor 
earth alone, but of the whole universe. 

§ 26. Continuation. 

Enriched with the knowledge we have now ac- 
quired, we shall once more take into consideration 
the Biblical account of the fall of man, 1 hoping that 
we may now be able to gain a more profound in- 
sight into this disastrous affair, than previously, 
when we had to examine it as a mere fact, standing 
altogether on its own merits. 

Xor does our hope disappoint us. Not only does 
the temptation, in its form, manner, and substance, 
now appear in a much clearer light ; but no less does 
the grand mystery of the whole affair — the tree of 
knowledge, and the serpent — one of them the basis, 
and the other the instrument of the temptation — 
become more intelligible to our minds. 

It was • necessary that man, in the capacity of a 
free creature, and hence, standing in need of self- 
determination and self-development, should be placed 
in a state of probation, should be placed on trial — 
this is obvious from the outset. But it is not so ob- 
vious, why his trial took the form of a temptation ; 
why the Divine will, which was to offer an occasion 

1 Gen. 3. 






PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 243 

for the decision of man, expressed itself, not in a 
positive, but in a negative injunction ; not in a com- 
mand, but in a prohibition. 

Arbitrary will is not conceivable on the part of 
God, least of all, as manifesting itself when he deals 
with personal, spiritual beings. It must therefore 
have been necessary from the position of man itself, 
that his trial should be effected in connection with a 
prohibition, and not a command. A prohibition pre- 
supposes the existence of evil, be it in the subject to 
whom any thing is forbidden, or be it in the for- 
bidden object. But, in the present case, it could not 
be that evil already existed in man, the subject on 
trial ; partly, because he still remained in the unde- 
veloped condition in which he was originally created, 
and partly, because, had the case been otherwise, 
his trial would have been both unnecessary and 
inadmissible. The evil must therefore have existed 
outside of man. Yet was everything that God 
had made, in and upon the earth, good, "very good." 1 
"Whence, then, this evil ? 

The tree of knowledge (compare § 12) was a tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil, not merely of 
good or evil ; and man was, in either case, by par- 
taking of or refraining from its fruits, to attain to a 
knowledge of both good and evil. Had evil not 
been in existence, however, man, in case he decided 
conformably to the Divine will, could not have at- 
tained to the knowledge of evil ; for to have know- 
ledge of what does not exist, is a contradiction in 
terms. And wherein lay the necessity that he should, 

1 Gen. 1 : 31. 



244 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

in either case, attain to the knowledge of that evil 
which already existed, which, nevertheless, existed 
only without his own being, yea even as it would 
appear, wholly without the sphere of his activity — 
for all upon the face of the earth was good, "very 
good?" 

God had caused the tree of knowledge, just as the 
other trees, to grow in the garden of Eden. 1 "Where- 
fore, then, did he bid man to beware of His own 
work ? Ah ! that tree was a tree of death ; for man 
would become the child of death, the moment he 
should taste of it, 2 — and still it was necessary, useful, 
and indispensable, although man was destined, not 
for death, but for life. The tree was good, for God 
had created it ; and still it was, at the same time, 
pernicious, for it was capable of bringing death upon 
man. How is this to be explained ? 

God tempts no man to evil, 3 yet still, the trial of 
man amounted to a temptation, and indeed, as we 
see at the first glance, a direct temptation to evil. It 
is not possible, however, that God should have sug- 
gested and occasioned the machinations of the ser- 
pent. Nay rather, the tempter derived the occasion 
for them and the impulse toward them, from his 
own depraved heart. The co-operation of God may 
only be regarded as a permission recognizing the 
necessity of the temptation, and, in so far, favoring 
its occurrence. But what were the grounds of this 
necessity? "What special object had the tempter in 
making man the object of his wiles ? what impelled 
him to entice man into destruction? Had it been 

1 Gen. 2:9. 2 Gen. 2 : 17. 3 James 1 : 13. 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 245 

merely the general base desire of "the evil one," to 
have companions in guilt, to drag others down to 
those depths of woe into which himself was fallen ; 
without any further reasons, without believing that 
he stood in a special relation to man, it is wholly 
inconceivable that God should have not only per- 
mitted him to display such base passions, but also 
have opened the way for their successful employ- 
ment. 

But all these and similar difficulties find a ready 
solution in the fact, that the fallen angels were the 
previous inhabitants of the earth, and that the earth, 
which was laid waste in consequence of their fall, 
has since been restored through the grace and might 
of God, and assigned to man as a place of abode 
and spiritual training. 

It now becomes obvious what a special object 
Satan had in enlisting all his powers, to allure man 
to revolt from God, to trample upon his original 
destiny, and rush headlong into destruction. His 
motive was natural enmity, profound hate, envy, 
wrath and revenge, toward the new aspirant, the 
favored rival who had received the habitation he 
himself had forfeited, the empire he had lost ; against 
him to whom all the glory and blessedness he him- 
self has lost, is to be given, and who is to sit over him 
in that judgment which is to consign him to the most 
fearful doom. His were the spasmodic efforts of 
despair, the utmost endeavors where all was at stake ; 
his was the delusive hope of again getting possession 
of the lost inheritance, and of escaping completely 
21 * 



246 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

the great judgment, for which he is now reserved in 
everlasting chains under darkness. 1 

We now discover how Divine wisdom and justice 
might, and necessarily should, permit, desire, and 
bring about the temptation — yea, even in spite of 
the fact that the fall was foreseen. God had ap- 
pointed man as the possessor and ruler of the earth, 
as the restorer of the disturbed harmony of a uni- 
verse, as the leader in the great and sacred contest 
of created spirits which was inflamed by the fall of 
the angels, and as the conqueror and final judge of 
those first rebels. But it was necessary that man, as 
a free, personal creature, should make his divine 
calling his own, by an act of his own free choice; 
that he should acquire the position to which he was 
appointed, by his own vigorous efforts; that he 
should earn his right to the possession of the heirless 
inheritance, and to the high office of being a judge 
over the rebels. He possessed the power also, in the 
capacity of a free moral agent, of forming an alli- 
ance with the great enemy of God, and, like him, of 
attacking the throne of God, instead of falling in 
with the Divine will and appointment. God is just, 
also, even towards Satan himself, and did not desire 
or attempt to prevent him from employing all the 
resources that he was possessed of, in order to main- 
tain his stand in opposition to Deity. He may not 
and shall not receive his final doom, until he has 
tried every possible expedient to regain his former 
footing, in vain ; until he has become fully conscious 

1 Jude 6. 



PRIMEVAL EARTH AND MAN. 247 

of utter and miserable weakness, which indeed un- 
derlies all his apparent conquests. 

It may now be further seen why it was necessary 
that the trial of man's self-determination should ap- 
pear under the form of a temptation ; why man was 
to maintain his first estate, not primarily in the 
observance of a command, but in avoiding what was 
forbidden. As evil was already in existence, and as 
man could by no means remain indifferent towards 
it, but rather, his position, his whole existence, mis- 
sion and destiny were directed against it, he must, 
before all others, by the exercise of his free choice, 
place himself in a determinate relation to it. 

Finally, that strange contradiction is now also ex- 
plained — that the tree of knowledge should have 
been created by God, and still be a tree of death and 
destruction ; also, that Satan, after he had forfeited 
this earthly province, should have obtained a lodg- 
ment and a basis of operation in the tree of know- 
ledge — that he should there have been permitted to 
try his hand at the overthrow of man. Although 
God had caused this tree to grow in the garden, there 
must have existed between it and Satan, some mys- 
terious relation ; there must have existed in it some- 
thing of a satanic nature, something that was related 
to and belonged to the great deceiver, something to 
which he might yet cling, and which he might call 
his own. 

This may readily be discovered. Death and ruin, 
as cosmical agencies, were brought into the primeval 
earth, through the revolt of Satan; the earth was 
made a "tohu va bohu." God, by the six days' work, 



248 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

implanted new cosmical powers- of life in the earth 
which had been laid waste, and • cansed them to be 
unfolded in fitting forms. . Man was then placed 
between- the two, between good and evil, between 
life and death. Both were presented to his choice 
by his Creator — he had but to speak the word, and 
the decision was made. The cosmical good which 
God had brought in by means of a re-creation, was 
concentrated in the tree of life : the cosmical evil 
which originated in Satan, was concentrated in the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil — but not 
without its being surrounded by the wholesome ad- 
monitions and threatenings of God, as a barrier 
against all approach. Moral good or moral evil 
would be engendered in man, according to the posi- 
tion he should freely take with respect to cosmical 
good and evil respectively, admonished on the one 
hand by God, and allured on the other by Satan. 

But the serpent? Here is a mystery of the pri- 
meval world which we shall not attempt fully to 
unravel. But the substance of the whole mystery, 
in a practical point of view, is obvious, — we know 
the nature, the motives, the leanings, designs and 
objects of the personal, spiritual principle, which 
wrought in or through the serpent. It is merely the 
connection between the bodily manifestation and the 
spiritual principle, which remains unravelled, unex- 
plained. We may, perhaps, apprehend it according 
to the analogy of the tree of knowledge, as explained 
above — that Satan, the serpent, and the tree, belong 
together, as personal, animal, and vegetable forms 
of concentrated evil, as embodiments of that evil 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 249 

which sprung from the fall of the angels, was held 
in check by God, and should have been vanquished 
and doomed by man. 

Man in the beginning of his history was designed 
to do that which can now be effected by the seed of 
the woman only in the fulness of times — to bruise 
the head of the serpent. This he might have effected 
by obedience to the Divine commands, by repelling 
the tempter, by disregarding and resisting his crafty 
wiles and imposing offers. The serpent and the tree 
were the last relics of Satanic possessions upon the 
renewed earth. The sway of the "tohu va bohu" 
was already broken and held in check by creative 
might. The serpent and the tree, its last evidences, 
were to be overcome and banished from the earth by 
man himself. They were the last, the only footholds 
of Satan upon the new earth ; the only possessions 
he could still call his own. Satan himself would 
have been vanquished and banished from the earth, 
so soon as they were overcome ; and the task of 
man, " to dress and keep the garden in Eden," would 
be reduced to the mere dressing of it. 

§ 27. The present Place of the Fallen Angels. 

This is a point of enough significance in a repre- 
sentation of the Biblical theory of the world, to 
claim our serious attention for a while. 

As created beings, subject to the bounds and limi- 
tations which belong to all that is finite, the fallen 
angels must necessarily dwell somewhere in space. 
There must be somewhere within the wide realm of 
space, a place which serves as a dwelling-place for 



250 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

them, and conforms to their present condition. But 
where is this place to be found ? 

In our attempts to answer this question, we must, 
in order to guard ourselves against misapprehensions 
or one-sided views, ever keep in mind, that the fallen 
angels are spirits in precisely the same sense as are 
their former companions (§ 18) who still preserve 
their allegiance to God — that they have bodies, 
spiritual bodies, 1 but not bodies of flesh and blood — 

1 J. P. Lange {Dogm. p. 571,) would look upon the demons as 
a " host of disembodied spirits." I cannot agree with him. The 
sacred Scriptures do not contain the least intimation in favor of 
such a view. In accordance with the analogy of human nature, 
Lange would look upon death as the wages of sin obtaining in 
the angelic world also, as a law of nature. But this supposition 
appears to me, not only incompetent, but as in all respects inad- 
missible. It is clear that it is far from being justified by Scrip- 
ture. The fundamental differences between the human and 
angelic natures, as taught by Sacred Writ, forbid us to draw any 
such conclusion. In all that the Bible says about the nature of 
the angels in general, and the condition of the fallen angels in 
particular, it excludes the idea that physical or bodily death ever 
obtains in the sphere of angelic being. The words: " The wages 
of sin is death," so far as they represent a necessary and univer- 
sal principle, must certainly apply in the case of the angels also ; 
but we can conceive, in respect to these beings as spirits, only spiri- 
tual or eternal death. Physical or corporeal death is not to be 
imagined in the case of spirits, whose corporeal constitution is 
from the outset of a spiritual (pneumatic) nature. Man is capa- 
ble of physical death, because his corporeal nature is of a fleshly 
character, and shall remain thus subject to death, until his body 
is in the future endowed with the spiritual (pneumatic) character. 
But the angels, whose bodies were originally, at the creation, en- 
dowed with a pneumatic character, are not capable of physical 
death. We are led to the same conclusion from a proper considera- 
tion of the significant fact, that the angels are by nature devoid of 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 251 

and that they move in the unblest sphere which has 
been allotted to them, with the same ease, rapidity and 
freedom, as do the good angels, in conformity to their 
nature, in their own glorious and heavenly abodes. 
David Strauss has attempted to cast the reproach 
upon the Holy Scriptures, that their ideas respecting 
the present condition and the abode of the demons, 
cannot possibly be harmonized ! " Christ beheld 
Satan falling as lightning from heaven; 1 but, ac- 
cording to the Apocalypse, 2 this fall of Satan is to 
take place only in the future ; according to 2d Pet. 
2 : 4, and Jude 6, the fallen angels are bound with 
chains, in the darkness of the lower world, reserved 
unto the judgment ; according to Eph. 2 : 2, and 
6 : 12, they inhabit the air, and according to 1st Pet. 
5 : 8, the devil goeth about (at liberty) as a roaring 

sex, with its predicates of generation and birth. The like con- 
clusion must be arrived at " a posteriori/' from the fact that the 
fallen angels are not capable of redemption, when we reflect that 
physical death, as the wages of human sin, is not purely a curse, 
but a curse conditioned no less by the Divine counsel of salvation 
than by human sin — that it is at the same time a curse and a 
blessing, for without the intervention of death man could not have 
been provided with salvation, or redeemed (§ 16). The analogy 
between the human and angelic natures, which is supplied by 
Matt. 22 : 30, and 1st Cor. 15, (£ 18), rests upon the juxtaposition 
of the bodies of the angels, as due to the creation, and the bodies 
of men as due to the resurrection. If we desire to draw any in- 
ference from this analogy, it can only legitimately be this one, 
that the corporeal nature of the angels since their fall, corresponds 
(as the wages of their sin) to that corporeal constitution wicked 
men shall receive in the resurrection of the great day (John 5 : 29) 
— an evidence, in the one case just as in the other, of the impos- 
sibility of salvation. 

1 Luke 10 : 18. 2 Rev. 12 : 9. 



252 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WOULD. 

lion." He might have added that, according to 
Matt. 12 : 43, waste places, and Luke 8 : 31, the 
abyss, is their place of ahode; while according to 
the Book of Job, Satan appears in the midst of the 
sons of God, before the throne of the Lord in heaven. 

We shall first explain the pretended incongruity, 
that Satan and his companions should on the one 
hand be represented as dwelling in heaven, and on 
the other, as cast out from thence. 

The whole contradiction, however apparent it be, 
rests upon the fact that the word "heaven" is used 
in several more or less restricted or specific senses, 
but all related and referring to each other, of which 
sometimes one and sometimes another is applied, 
and is to be understood according to the sense and 
connection of the discourse. 

The word heaven, first of all (§ 24) designates the 
great canopy spread abroad above the earth, and 
enclosing it on all sides. Thus the first idea of the 
word is a physical one : the idea of locality. The 
use of the word in a plural sense, which prevails in 
Scripture, is of itself sufficient to show that the 
locality which is called heaven, is regarded as com- 
prehending several varied divisions. We have first, 
the heavens composed of the terrestrial atmosphere ; 
and in conformity to this sense of the word, the 
Bible, as do all nations and all tongues, speaks of the 
fowls of heaven, the reddening of the heavens, &c. 
According to common, every-day views and modes 
of expression, as well as according to the natural 
appearance to the eye, all regions of space lying be- 
yond our atmosphere coincide ; as, for example, Gen. 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 253 

1 : 8. But, where the object is to bring heaven and 
earth into strong and distinct contrast, the starry 
heavens, which are strictly opposed to the earth, are 
clearly distinguished from the atmospheric heavens, 
which still belong, physically speaking, to the earth. 
The former are meant by the Scriptures, when they 
mention the heavenly hosts, whether they be speak- 
ing of the stars or the hosts of the angels. 

But the word heaven does not designate merely a 
locality, but also a condition corresponding to this 
locality. Thus there is connected with the physical 
idea of heaven, also a symbolic and ethical idea of 
the same place. The ethical idea arises on the one 
hand, from the exaltation of heaven above the earth, 
and hence excludes the lowliness, weakness and 
poverty which prevail everywhere upon the earth; 
and springs, on the other hand, from the conceptions 
we have of the inhabitants of heaven — God and his 
holy angels — and includes the idea of a supra-mun- 
dane Divine glory and blessedness. 

The symbolic idea of heaven, also, arises from the 
high, the exalted character of that place. The high, 
the sublime, is, in and of itself, that which ever bears 
sway and controls. The heaven or heavens sur- 
round the earth on all sides, control it, give it rains 
and fruitful seasons, but also visit upon it the chas- 
tisements and judgments of an offended God. Thus 
in symbolic language, heaven represents a 'power 
which controls and governs all that is earthly. 

The words of Christ concerning the falling of 
Satan, and also the words of the Apocalypse touch- 
ing his ejectment from heaven, are to be understood 
22 



254 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

in this last sense — on the principle of symbolic 
representation. Both passages express the loss of his 
power, his lordly dominion. This is demanded by 
the connection in both places, and no less, by the 
prophetico-scenic character of the description. This 
is the only possible signification to give to the word 
heaven in this place, as will be allowed by every 
honest mind, by all but those who fear not to tamper 
with Scripture. That the two passages contradict 
each other, in one representing as past what the other 
says shall take place in the future, no well-informed 
and discerning mind can believe. It is clear that 
the words of our Lord may be easily explained, 
whether they refer to the first revolt and fall of Satan, 
or to his subjugation which was now being accom- 
plished through the disciples, to whom the Lord had 
given power over his kingdom, or finally, to the 
doom of this powerful spirit of evil, foreseen as tak- 
ing place at the judgment of the last day. 

Further, though the Book of Job represents Satan 
as appearing among the sons of God, before the 
throne in heaven, it by no means follows that we are 
to suppose he dwells in heaven, and among the sons 
of God. If we strip the scene of its poetical cloth- 
ing, nothing remains but the mere fact that Satan, 
at least at that time, had still the right and the power 
to accuse man before his Creator, and, to the extent 
of Divine permission, also to tempt and injure him. 
But this view agrees well with what is said in other 
books of Scripture. 1 The Book of Job does not 
speak in general of the abode of Satan at all. 

1 Compare, for example, Luke 22 : 31 ; Rev. 12 : 10, etc. 



PKESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 255 

Again, let us now consider the passage, Eph. 6 : 12. 
"For we wrestle not," says the Apostle, "against 
flesh and blood (against feeble, powerless men), but 
against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places (sv roTs itfoupaviVc)." The 
Apostle does not say distinctly, "in heaven;" he 
chooses, and with evident design, a less determinate 
expression. But had he used the words "in heaven," 
his meaning would have been nothing different ; it 
might, indeed, have been more exposed to misappre- 
hension. 

But what does the Apostle mean by saying that 
evil spirits dwell in heaven, or in heavenly places ? 
Are we to apprehend this expression as having a 
local, an ethical, or a symbolic meaning ? 

Certainly not as having an ethical one. It is wholly 
out of the question that the Apostle should have 
intended to represent those spirits of evil, the rulers 
in the darkness of this world, as happy, as blessed 
beings, from the relation in which he places them 
toward heaven. 

But is the expression symbolic? — does it denote 
their dominion over the earth, their controlling power 
over men? 1 The connection appears, at the first 
glance, strikingly in favor of such an interpretation. 
But we very soon discover how inadmissible a sym- 
bolic interpretation would be. We are allowed and 
compelled to apprehend the expressions used in Luke 

1 Thus Hengstenberg (Die Offenbarung Johannis, I. 619), who 
would explain this passage precisely according to the analogy of 
Luke 10 : 18, and Rev. 12 : 9. 



256 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

10 : 18, and Rev. 12 : 9, symbolically, from the pro- 
phetico-scenic character of the descriptions them- 
selves. But here the case is wholly different. We 
have no warrant for interpreting this expression aside 
from its direct literal sense, or symbolically. Be- 
sides, such an interpretation would give rise to a 
tautology, such as could only be made endurable or 
not apparent, by regarding heaven not as the mere 
ideal symbol of might, but as the real place w 7 here it 
is collected and treasured up. This would be pur- 
suing the thought, at least ; — but we should find 
ourselves already passed over from the purely sym- 
bolic apprehension, to the local one. 

Every consideration, therefore, leads us to regard 
the local apprehension of the expression as the only 
correct one. — But it may now be asked, are we to 
understand it as referring to the lower heavens, the 
terrestrial the atmospheric, heavens ; or to the upper 
heavens, the heaven of the stars and the angels ? — 
Certainly not to the upper heaven, because that is 
the abode of the holy angels, and to dwell there is 
nothing short of dwelling in the midst of the most 
perfect blessedness. 

It is objected that the same Apostle, in the same 
epistle, uses the same expression (iv roTs itfoupav/oic;), 
when speaking of Christ sitting at the right hand of 
God, 1 and of the dwelling-place of the holy angels. 
But, if it be granted that the word heaven is used in 
common language in a twofold sense, it is surely no 
valid objection to say that the same writer would not 
have used the word, now in this and now in that 

« Eph. 1 : 20 ; 2 : 6. 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 257 

sense, according to the demands of the case. Thus, 
when Christ in one place speaks of his Father in 
heaven, and of the angels of God in heaven, and in 
another place, of the fowls of heaven and of the 
heavens "becoming red, no one would attempt to 
convict us of false or arbitrary exegesis, should we 
in one place refer his words to the atmospheric ter- 
restrial heavens, and in the other, to the abodes of 
the blessed, far beyond the earth. 

Hence, the words of the Apostle in Eph. 6 : 12, 
were designed to convey this meaning and none 
other, that the abodes of the evil spirits are to be 
found in the atmospheric heavens, however strange 
such a view may appear at the first glance. 

And the correctness of this interpretation is proved 
by the fact that the Apostle had beforehand, in the 
same Epistle 1 expressly called Satan, " the prince of the 
poiver of the air(rb\i ap^ovra <rfc !foutf«xg tqv Siipog), the spirit 
that now worketh in the children of disobedience." 

All attempts, even the most recent, 2 to explain 
away the view contained in these words, that Satan 

1 Eph. 2 : 2. 

2 Hofmann {ScJiriftbeiv, I. 402 seq.) regards tov rtvevfiatos as iri 
apposition to cU'poj. He holds that the Apostle called the "spirit 
that worketh in the children of disobedience," contemptuously, 
"fyp," and afterwards explained himself by the term " rtvtvua." 
And that this could the more easily be done, as o^p and TCvsv/jia 
are ideas of similar etymological signification. But as the use of 
the word dr;p (air, atmosphere, etc.) is constant and determinate 
without exception, so that it never signifies breath, wind, to say 
nothing of its being used figuratively in the sense of spirit ; as, 
further, the etymological signification of the word rivsv/xa {wind, 
breath) is so little observed in the language of the New Testament, 

22* 



258 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

and his legions dwell in the air, have signally failed. 
They have all been frustrated by the incontestable 
fact that the word "air" (a^p), cannot denote any- 
thing else than the air which surrounds the earth, 

that no one should think of attending to it in the course of read- 
ing, unless in a case such as John 3 : 8, where the context clearly 
indicates that we must take the word in its literal and etymolo- 
gical significance ; and as, finally, the genitive tov Ttvtvixatos ap- 
plies freely and without constraint to the whole conception, trj 
ifjovcrias tov atpoj (so that it stands in apposition to the chief and 
governing genitive trj$ s%ovoias, and not to the subordinate and 
unimportant genitive tov aipoj) — as all this is plain to the mind 
of the reader, it is clear that we cannot but understand the Apostle 
to speak of Satan and his powers dwelling in the air. In addi- 
tion, we have the fact that the same view signally prevailed in the 
minds of the Jewish Kabbis (comp. Meyer). The Apostle, who 
was educated under the care of these men, could not have written 
the words etovala tov aipoj, without calling to mind the rabbinic 
view on the matter he was discussing. If he regarded the view 
a false one, he certainly should so have chosen his words as to 
exclude it altogether from his own writings. But his words in 
reality contain an express acknowledgment of that view. It is 
the more striking that Hofmann wholly ignores this fact, since 
he concedes to the book of Enoch, which is nothing better than 
the rabbinic legends, such an important influence upon the Epistle 
of Jude, and the Second Epistle of Peter. The two cases are pre- 
cisely analogous. Just as Peter and Jude drew from the tradi- 
tions of the book of Enoch, only what they knew to be true, 
passing by all its fables and puerilities, so also Paul, under the 
guidance of the Spirit, as they were, retained and made use of 
only such facts due to his rabbinic training,as stood the test of 
the Spirit of Wisdom from above. " Thus much," says Meyer, 
" is clear enough, amid the confused trash of rabbinic traditions, 
that the province of the demons is, according to these sages, in 
the air ; and we find the Apostle Paul agreeing with them. Hence 
we have no right to deny that he may have received this idea in 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 259 

the atmosphere, the region of the clouds, the lower 
stratum of the air (in opposition to the ether, as the 
upper and purer air of heaven) : that the word is not 
used in a single instance, either in classical or Bibli- 
cal writings, in a different sense. 

If we now proceed to the explanation of the pas 
sage, Luke 8 : 31, where the abyss (the regions of the 
lower world,) is mentioned as the proper abode of 
demons, we shall discover, on a clear insight into the 
passage, that by the abyss is not meant the present 
abode of the fallen angels, but rather, their future 
prison, to which they shall be irrevocably consigned, 
only at the day of judgment. 1 The petition of the 
demons, that the Lord would not send them into the 
deep must be explained by the preceding words : " Art 
thou come to torment us before the time?" They 
were tormented by the fear that the Lord might now 
consign them to that prison of despair and death, 
which they well know awaits them at the last clay. 
"Evil spirits are not," says Hofmann, "confined 
where death alone bears sway, but they work in the 
living also, in order to lead them to sin and drag 
them down to death." 

Further, granting that the view of Matt. 12 : 43, 
which represents the demons as walking through dry 
plaees seeking rest, is contained even in other parts 

epistle ; while at the same time it is by no means allowable to 
attribute to Paul the same curiosity which was connected with 
this view or axiom in the minds of the Jewish sages, since he 
says nothing more than that the devil and his powers inhabit the 
air." 

1 Eev. 20 : 3-10. 



260 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

of Scripture ; x we do not feel ourselves warranted in 
giving all these passages a figurative meaning; 
neither can we discover in them any substantial con- 
tradiction to Eph. 2 : 2, and 6 : 12. There is no reason 
to suppose that if demons inhabit the regions of the 
air, they cannot inhabit the dry or waste places of 
the earth also — both predicates in respect to them 
may be alike true at the same time. And though 
it be true that the devil, according to 1st Pet. 5 : 8, 
goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
devour, and that he walks to and fro upon the earth, 
amid the habitations of men — all this does not ex- 
clude the idea that he should dwell in the regions of 
the air, and in the waste places of the earth. This 
alone necessarily follows, that he is not, together 
with all his power and influence, banished to and 
confined in these regions and places. 

Paul himself, in other places, calls the Satanic 
power of the air, the spirit which worketh in. the 
children of disobedience, and the evil hosts of the 
heavenly places, the rulers of the darkness of this 
world. And, according to the words of our Lord in 
Matt. 12 : 43, demons pass to and from waste places 
upon the earth generally, at will. 

It yet remains for us to incorporate the results we 
have just now attained, with our previous knowledge 
of the history and condition of the fallen angels. 

Satan possessed a foothold upon the renewed earth, 
and a place where to commence his direful opera- 
tions, only in the tree of knowledge, and in the ser- 
pent, the instrument of the temptation. He made 

Lev. 16 : 10 ; Is. 34 : 13, 14 ; Rev. 12 : 9. 



PRESENT PLACE OF FALLEN ANGELS. 261 

use of them as means of a betrayal by which he 
hoped to acquire, in the earth from which he had 
been driven, a new province where to exercise his 
dominion. He succeeded ; but still, not so fully as 
he had hoped. 

The fall brought man under the power of him by 
whom he was betrayed, and the latter became the 
ruler of the darkness of this world, which, as the 
consequence of sin, again cast its brooding shadows 
over all things; Satan became the prince, yea, even, 
the god of this world. 1 But this dominion was pre- 
vented from being absolute and universal by the 
intervention of the plan of salvation ; for the evil one 
finds his proper subjects only in the children of dis- 
obedience, he rules only in the darkness of this world, 
and only the darkened minds of the unbelieving 
acknowledge him as their prince and God. The 
"tohu va bohu," which had been reduced by the six 
days' work, again broke forth, however, in the form 
of thorns and thistles growing from the sin-cursed 
earth ; of fatal poisons in the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms; of deserts and barren solitudes upon the 
face of the earth ; of careering storms and pestifer- 
ous miasmata in the atmosphere. But the new and 
glorious character the earth received in the six days' 
creation, with its bright and warm suns, its fruitful 
seasons, its green valleys, its liveried beauty, its teem- 
ing life and showers of blessings, still predominated. 
Thus it appears that the leagued hosts of Satanic 
power were not again permitted to take complete 
possession of the earth ; not even after the fall of 

1 2 Cor. 4 : 4. 



262 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

man, and the wide-spread ruin arising therefrom — 
no, not even to find in its waste places that rest 
which they seek. 1 Hurled from heaven, the place of 
glory and blessedness, shut out from the society of 
the holy angels, their former companions, and still 
strangers upon earth, as the theatre of a salvation in 
which they have no part, they take a position between 
heaven and earth — they make the air their abode. 
The earth was their original home ; they have old 
claims upon it, on account of the "tohu va bohu " 
out of which it was formed ; they have acquired new 
claims upon it, by means of the sin and ruin they 
have caused, to mar the glory of our human world. 
To make good these claims, to enlarge and extend 
them, is their one fond hope, the object of their 
leagued endeavors. 

§ 28. The Universal History of the Cosmos. 

The Holy Scriptures clearly place the development 
and destiny, the aim and end of the whole creation, in 
this striking, this unique (einheitlichen) point of view, 
that they are all comprehended under one single 
world-plan, and that all history is governed, animated 
and sustained, by this same all-controlling plan. 
They supply us with a drama of the development of 
a world, in its most general and essential features, 
in which all the creatures formed and disciplined, so 
well as the Creator forming and disciplining them, 
take an active part ; in which there is given, either 
by God himself, or through the medium of a free 
choice on the part of the creature, to the finite spirit, 

1 Matt. 12 : 43, 44. 



UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF COSMOS. 263 

and also to physical nature where it is to manifest its 
activity — to the angel of heaven as well as to man 
upon earth, — a special part to sustain — to each one 
his particular role ; but this ever in conformity to the 
nature and measure of his Divine vocation. They 
point us to " one God, the Father, of whom are all 
things, and we in him : and one Lord Jesus Christ, 
by whom are all things and we by him." 1 They open 
to us a view into the counsels of the Divine will, from 
whence in the beginning all things proceeded, by 
which all things were ordained from eternity, accord- 
ing to the good pleasure of his will, so that he might, 
in the fulness of times, gather together in one, all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
are in earth; even in him, 2 and to him; 3 — so that 
every name that is named, not only in this world, but 
also in that which is to come, may be united in ever- 
lasting harmony and fulness under him the one head, 
and in such a manner that one may not be made 
perfect without the other, 4 so that when all is fin- 
ished, God may be all in all. 5 

Thus do the Holy Scriptures furnish us with a his- 
tory, now by hints, and now more at length — ever 
according to man's special need of knowledge and 
capacities for it, for his religious wants are always first 
looked to — a history which, taking within its wide 
grasp the whole universe, and placing its total deve- 
lopment in such a point of view, that it may be seen 
as the offspring of a single Divine decree, and to tend 
to one final goal — a history which may thus with 

1 1 Cor. 8 : G. 2 Eph. 1 : 10. » Rom. 11 : 36. 

4 Heb. 11 -40. 5 1 Cor. 15 : 28. 



264 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

special emphasis be called a universal history, a his- 
tory for the full and thorough knowledge of wiiich 
we must await the clear vision of the eternal state, 
when our present fragmentary knowledge shall be 
for ever done away. 1 

This history, according to its elements and funda- 
mental features as derived from Scripture, may be 
significantly divided into four grand periods, or ages 
of the ivorld (aiwveg). 

The first period, which may be called the primeval 
age, comprehends the creation of the whole universe, 
together with its original inhabitants, the angels ; 
and also the development and partial fall of the 
latter, by which at least one of the happy and glo- 
rious worlds of the beginning, was engulphed in the 
floods of destruction, ruined and laid waste, made a 
" tohu va bohu." 

The second period, which we shall call the past 
age, includes the restitution of the earth w r hich had 
been destroyed on account of the sin of the fallen 
angels, the creation of man as the lord and inhabi- 
tant of the new earth, and also the trial of man 
which resulted in his opposition to God, and thus 
produced a new schism in the unity of the universe, 
a fresh discord in the harmony of the spheres. 

The third period, called in Scripture 6 a/wv ovrog, and 
which we shall, in harmony with its terms, call the 
present age, comprehends the redemption of man 
through Christ, and the renewal of the earth which 
has been marred by fall of the human race. In 
Christ we are about to see the unfulfilled mission of 

1 1 Cor. 13 : 9, 10. 



INTEREST OF ANGELS IN THE EARTII. 265 

the second age of the world, most fully and gloriously 
realized, and the twice disturbed Divine plan of the 
world fully carried out. 

The fourth period, the future age of the Scriptures, 
6 »Cn ixsmg, 6 tdCn p&Xuv, is to be the eternal Sabbath 
of all God's creatures who have remained steadfast 
to him, and of those who have been redeemed — in 
it they shall enter into His everlasting rest. That 
time is to be one with eternity; in it all develop- 
ments shall have been fully unfolded, all changes 
brought to rest, and all histories finally and eternally 
closed. 

We have already considered the chief points in 
the history of the two first ages of the world, so far 
as they may be gathered from revelation — we have 
considered them, both in themselves, and in their 
relation to the whole. We have also become ac- 
quainted with the third age of the world, in its fun- 
damental features, with respect to its mission and 
tendencies (§ 16) ; but have been prevented from 
pursuing our acquaintance further, from the neces- 
sity of understanding this age in its extra-mundane 
relations. We shall now take up the thread of our 
representation, just at the point where we were pre- 
viously compelled to abandon it for a time. 

§ 29. The Interest of the Angels in Earthly Develop- 
ments. 
The universal history of the Cosmos was by no 
means brought to an end by the fall of the angels, 
which closed the first age of the world. A jealous 
God would not endure the idea that a world which 
23 



266 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

he had created, should be hopelessly abandoned to 
that wasting ruin which the fall of its inhabitants 
had brought upon it. Hence he renewed it in the 
w T ork of six days, and gave it new inhabitants. 
Thus there began a new act in the great drama of 
the world. 

The fallen angels have borne the sentence of con- 
demnation in themselves ever since the day of their 
daring revolt. But they still play a part in the new 
world ; their history is intimately interwoven with 
the history of man, the new inhabitant ; and only 
when history is fully brought to a close will the 
history of Satan be completed. The latter will still 
continue to press his claims, to push his projects, to 
vainly war against the plan of redemption, until he 
sees himself completely overthrown by its most 
triumphant and enduring success. So long as there 
still remains upon earth anything accessible to him, 
which he can take pleasure in destroying ; so long 
as there still remain here any beings not fully de- 
livered by the redemption of Christ from this evil 
world, from the darkness of unbelief and alienation 
from God, of which he is the prince; 1 so long as he 
may still find the means and opportunity of accusing 
men before the throne of eternal justice; 2 yea, so 
long as it remains perhaps abstractly possible that 
he may, by the most extreme, subtle and persistent 
endeavors, deceive even the elect 3 — so long must 
the tremendous curse to which both he and his fol- 

. J Eph. 6 : 12. 

2 Job 1 : 2 ; Zech. 3:1; Luke 22 : 31 ; Rev. 12 : 10. 

3 Matt. 24 : 22 24. 



INTEREST OF ANGELS IN THE EARTH. 267 

lowers are subjected, and which hovers above them 
like a gathering and an appalling storm, delay to 
hurl its shivering bolts upon the incorrigible offen- 
ders. 

This waiting for the judgment of the great day, 
keeps the good angels in a state of eager expectation ; 
for neither can the end of their history, their unend- 
ing Sabbath of holy rest and perfect blessedness, be 
brought about, until the contest between good and 
evil, between light and darkness in the minds of 
created beings, in which they play so important a 
part, is brought to a triumphant and glorious issue. 
The disturbed harmony of the universe must first be 
restored, all elements of opposition to God removed, 
and all discords resolved into one harmonious, ma- 
jestic, universal and unceasing anthem of praise to 
a great and good Creator. 

Those words in the Book of Job (38 : 7), to which 
we have already several times referred, now appear 
to us in a new and clearer light ; we now begin to 
perceive why the restitution of the earth should have 
filled the sons of God, the inhabitants of the morn- 
ing-stars, with joy and delight, and inspired them 
with adoring and triumphant songs. 

We now also perceive how deep and thrilling is 
their interest in man and in human history; why 
they are ever ready to guard and further 1 the interests 
of God's kingdom upon the earth; rejoice at its ad- 
vancement, 2 sorrow over its want of success, 3 to co- 
operate with man in his wrestlings with the powers 

1 Ps. 91 : 11, 12: Heb. 1 : 14. 2 Luke 15 : 10. 

3 Matt. 18: 10; 1 Cor. 11: 10. 



268 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

of darkness, 1 and to participate in all the sorrows 
and joys, the struggles and triumphs of the human 
race. Their calling, as ministers and messengers of 
God, to protect and defend the interests of his king- 
dom, is not adequate to the explanation of their 
sympathy with man — the deep interest, the joy and 
delight they manifest at every success of the plan of 
salvation, does not arise wholly from the blessedness 
they should experience in the service of God — in 
the execution of his commands and the maintenance 
of his decrees — were there no real and close connec- 
tion between this plan of salvation, these decrees, 
and themselves, had the former no influential refer- 
ence to the nature and position of the latter, ^"o, 
they have, besides, a special, a personal interest in 
earthly affairs ; the history of man is also their own 
history; every success of the plan of salvation here 
upon earth, brings their history nearer to its trium- 
phant conclusion ; but, also, every obstruction of this 
plan retards the progress of their history. 

§ 30. Participation of the Angels in the Preparatives 
to Salvation. 

The first promise to man placed in prospect a long 
and arduous struggle between the seed of the woman 
and the seed of the serpent. The final issue of the 
contest was, indeed, not left in doubt ; for the head 
of the serpent was to be bruised, the seed of the wo- 
man was to conquer, but not without receiving many 
wounds and suffering many reverses. 

1 Jude 9. 



ANGELS AND SALVATION. 269 

Satan seemed, however, for a while victorious. He 
had again become a power upon that earth which he 
had forfeited, and though it had been renewed, he 
had succeeded in marring it a second time ; he had 
become " the prince of this world," 1 yea, even " the 
god of this world," 2 and his angels "the rulers of 
the darkness of this world." 3 He was at least per- 
mitted to appear in the garments of truth, and pro- 
mise to those whom he would fain induce to serve 
and obey him: "All this power will I give thee, and 
the glory of them : for that is delivered into me : and 
to whomsoever I will, I give it." 4 He was permit- 
ted to appear as "the accuser of our brethren," 5 
hypocritically appealiug to the justice of God, and 
demanding that the same curse which had already 
lighted upon himself, or was held in sure reserve for 
him, should be visited upon them (when they would 
not own him as their master), — for, were they not, 
too, all of them, sinners against God ? 

He acquired a wide province to his dominions in 
the worship of nature as practised by the heathen, 6 
and but too often did he succeed in planting the 
growing seeds of idolatry, in the heart of that nation 
which God had chosen as the bearer of the yet un- 
developed plan of salvation. But he was yearly re- 
minded in the services of the Hebrews, that a great 
Atonement had been found, which was both unobjec- 
tionable and all-sufficient, and before which Satan 

1 John 14 : 30. 2 2 Cor. 4:4. 3 Eph. 6 : 12. 

4 Luke 4:6. 5 Rev. 12 : 10 ; Job 1 : 9 ; Zech. 3. 

6 1 Cor. 10 : 20, 21. 
23* 



270 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

himself, the great accuser, must stand silent and con- 
founded. 1 

But the angels of God were far from being list- 
less beholders of the developments and contests that 
were now taking place upon the earth. They con- 
stitute the heavenly host, the powers of the upper 
world, after whom God names himself " the Lord of 
hosts " (Jehovah Sabaoth), and "the captain of the 
host of the Lord." 2 They ever surround the throne 
of the Almighty, ready to be sent to minister to them 
who shall be heirs of salvation ; prepared to protect 
and defend the righteous, and keep them in all their 
ways, lest they dash their foot against a stone. 3 

As their destiny neither was, nor indeed could be, 
to settle the changing fortunes of earthly affairs, by 
taking a decisive step in the great contest, in reli- 
ance upon their own unborrowed strength, but 
rather, to be messengers and ministers of Him who 
alone has power to conduct to a final and triumphal 
issue the battle which was being waged — we may 
well suppose that their deepest interest and most 
active participation would not be manifested, until 

1 On the great day of atonement two goats were brought forth, 
and determined by lot, the one "for the Lord" and the other 
"for Azazel" ( a name for Satan). The sins of the whole people 
were then typically atoned for, by means of the blood of the first 
goat ; after which the sins already atoned for, were laid upon the 
head of the other goat, which was then sent into the wilderness 
to Azazel, in order that he might learn what had happened, and 
become conscious that by virtue of the atoning grace of God, he 
no longer had power over the people of Israel. For further par- 
ticulars, compare my work: Das Mosaisclie Opfer, Mitau, 1842, 
p. 266-302. 

2 Josh. 5 : 14, compare 6:2. 3 Ps. 91 : 11, 12. 



ANGELS AND SALVATION. 271 

the great Captain of salvation placed himself per- 
sonally at the head of the ranks, until the prepara- 
tory stage of salvation had been passed, and the 
point reached where it was to be accomplished and 
offered to a waiting world. 

But, even in that preparatory stage, they were not 
mere intent beholders of what was passing, for it is 
said that "the law " — our school-master to bring ns 
to Christ — a was received by the disposition of 
angels," 1 or, according to the Apostle Paul: "or- 
dained by angels in the hand of a mediator." 2 This 
is further proven by the fact that angelic beings, who 
move unseen through our material creation, some- 
times (when they wished specially to strengthen the 
faith of some one, or supply needed comfort,) em- 
bodied themselves so as to be apprehended by the 
senses, either in dreams or during waking hours; as 
when Jacob, during his flight from the land of pro- 
mise, beheld in a dream, the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending between heaven and earth 3 as the 
active and untiring bearers or media of Divine 
agency — or when, as he returned, a double host of 
the angels of God met him ; 4 or, finally, when upon 
the prayer of Elisha, the Lord opened the eyes of the 
desponding servant of the man of God, so that he 
saw the mountain to be full of horses and chariots of 
fire round about Elisha. 5 

1 Acts 7 : 53. 2 Gal. 3 : 19 ; Heb. 2:2. 3 Gen. 28. 

4 Gen. 32 : 1, 2. 5 2 Kings 6 : 17. 



272 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

§ 31. Christ the Second Adam. 

But when the fulness of time was come, God sent 
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that 
we might receive the adoption of sons. 1 The Word 
became flesh and dwelt among us, and all whose 
spiritual eyes were opened to discern majesty arrayed 
in the garments of lowliness, might still behold "his 
glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God, 
full of grace and truth." 2 The eternal Word by 
whom the heavens and the earth were created, ap- 
peared in the world, to save the world and conduct 
it to its ultimate consummation. The first born of all 
creatures, the image of the invisible God, the proto- 
type of man created in the image of God, became 
man ; the Lord of glory appeared in the form of a 
servant, and became like to us in all things, sin ex- 
cepted. And as formerly, w T hen God renewed the 
earth which had been laid waste through the fall of 
the angels, the morning stars sang together, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy; so also now the ad- 
vent of Christ, the second Adam, the Redeemer of 
men, was celebrated by the praises of the angelic 
hosts. 3 The celestial worlds joined in the celebration 
— the star in the east, the sign of the new-born king, 
came and stood over the lowly stable in Bethlehem, 
where the matchless wonder of worlds had taken 
place. 4 Christ took part in the history of the world, 
in the history of the universe, as the second Adam, 
the restorer of the human race, in order to accom- 

1 Gal. 4: 4, 5. 2 John 1 : 14. 3 Luke 2 : 10-14. 4 Matt. 2 : 2 seq. 



CHRIST THE SECOND ADAM. 273 

plish finally and gloriously the counsels of the grace 
of God, which had been devised in eternity, but twice 
disturbed by the revolt of his creatures. 

He was to do away with the false, the unhealthy 
development upon which man had entered, which 
ended only in sin and death ; and he was to restore 
all that it had destroyed. He was to take up again 
the missed or neglected development God had ap- 
pointed for man, which was to lead to unalloyed and 
endless perfection and blessedness ; to bring this 
earth to its final and perfect state, and to resolve the 
whole universe again into one harmonious and glori- 
ous whole. 

In order to accomplish these high ends, he entered 
the organism of the human race by being born of a 
woman, 1 as a new and holy member of this race, and 
furnished with a fulness of life that might never be 
diminished or exhausted. He, the new and healthy 
member, bears all the infirmities and sicknesses of 
the whole organism — he heals all its diseases from 
his inexhaustible life-giving resources. Thus he be- 
comes the head and the heart of the total organism, 
and as formerly our sins and infirmities brought suf- 
fering and sorrow upon him, so also now since his 
death and victory, his grace and healing power per- 
vades the whole organism — the power of the victory 

1 Christ, from being born of a (however devout and pious her 
character, still) sinful woman, was no more affected with the 
general sinfulness of humanity, than the noble scion assumes the 
ignoble nature of the wild fruit-tree into which it is grafted. Al- 
though nourished by the sap of the wild, the ingrafted shoot bears 
not the fruit of the wild tree, but that of its own noble species. 



274 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

is felt by all. The new life-blood flows from him 
into the body of humanity, pervades and quickens 
into renewed life by its wondrous power every single 
member of the whole body, so far as its influence is 
received, through the channel of a bond uniting that 
member with the great Head. But all who are not 
united in community of life with the head, shall 
perish and be cast away. 1 As we have all sprung 
from Adam by natural generation, and thus partake 
of Adam's sin and guilt, so also are we to obtain 
Christ's righteousness and holiness by being spiri- 
tually begotten of him. We must abide by him, 
the captain of our salvation, who endures great con- 
flicts and gains great victories for us and with us ; 
w r e must follow him through contests and victories, 
thatw^e may finally be exalted with him to that glory 
which he has acquired by his own matchless power. 
He took the place of the first Adam, the place of 
the whole human race ; he did that which we should 
have done, but could not do, since we are sinners; 
he suffered where we should have suffered — should 
have suffered eternally. He obtained eternal re- 
demption for us. For by his death he has acquired 
a merit which receives, from the Divinity of his 
nature, infinite worth and eternal validity, and thus 
removes the immeasurable guilt of our sins ; — by his 
resurrection he has brought to light a fulness of life 
and immortality, which, flowing from his Divine 
nature, is adequate to heal every disease, to supply 
every deficiency, and to give victorious strength to 
those that are ready to faint. He has by his own 

1 John 15 : 4-6. 



CHRIST THE SECOND ADAM. 275 

death, taken away the sting of death ; for the sting 
of death is sin ; — his resurrection has opened the 
way for our resurrection, for : 

" Shall Head and members part in twain, 
And never be rejoined again?" 

His ascension is the pledge of our future exaltation ; 
he, by sitting at the right hand of God with regal 
power, completes our salvation, and conducts heaven 
and earth, angels and men, to that state of absolute 
perfection decreed in the counsels of eternity. Thus 
is the human race finally to attain that position in 
the universe for which it was originally destined. 

When the Lord of glory became man, he laid 
aside his Divine form ; ] but when he ascended again 
to heaven, he assumed anew the full glory of the 
Divine character. He appeared in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, amidst the sinful inhabitants of this 
earth ; 2 but he arose from the grave with a glorified 
body, and he now sits in the same glorified human 
form — fiesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone — on 
the right hand of power. While he tabernacled 
upon the earth, his Godhead took part in the low- 
liness, the griefs and sorrows of human nature, by 
means of the personal union of the two natures ; 
now as he sits at the right r?and of God on high, his 
human nature partakes of all the infinite attributes 
of the Godhead. He who calls us brethren, 3 rules 
the world: the man Jesus it is, who is the judge of 
the quick and the dead. 

The Redeemer, even during his earthly life in the 
form of a servant, gave, in his wondrous works, the 

Phil. 2:6. 2 Rom. 8:3. 3 Heb. 2 : 11. 



276 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

beginnings, the types and pledges of that full re- 
demption which he as the glorified Son of man is to 
bring about, at the winding up of earthly affairs. 
His miracles pertained essentially to his character 
and work as the second Adam, the restorer of all 
things. Man by the fall lost that dominion over 
physical nature and the creatures of the earth which 
God at the first bestowed upon him — the proper 
relation between spirit and nature was thereby dis- 
turbed. Sickness, pain, misery and death, coupled 
with many disturbances in the economy of nature, 
entered the life of humanity. It was the mission 
of the Son of man, to recover and exercise this 
lost dominion, to do away with all the consequences 
of sin, and restore completely the proper relation 
between spirit and nature, between mind and matter. 
This can, indeed, be effected in its full extent and 
completeness, only at the end of this economy of 
affairs, at the close of the third age of the world — 
when the new life which Christ has implanted in 
humanity, has thoroughly pervaded and transformed 
the whole race. But it was both possible and fitting 
that the first fruits of this restoration should already 
be visible, as types and pledges of its final and full 
accomplishment. Henc% he appeased the raging 
storm of the sea, with the potent words, "Peace, be 
still !" as a sign that he would in future heal all the 
wounds and convulsions of nature ; hence he showed 
his absolute control over the sustaining properties 
of food and drink, by turning the water into wine, 
and satisfying with a few small loaves five thousand 
men that hungered. Hence he healed all manner 



CO-OPERATION AND OPPOSITION OF ANGELS. 277 

of sicknesses, and called the dead back into life 
again, as a sign that he was about to entirety abolish 
the power of death ; and hence, finally, he destroyed 
the fearful power of the prince of darkness over 
men, which was specially observable in the possessed 
of his time, in order to show that he was come to 
destroy all the works of darkness. 

And as he ascended into heaven, so in like man- 
ner shall he come again, 1 in the clouds of heaven, 
with Divine majesty and glory, that he may judge 
the quick and the dead, and conduct both heaven 
and earth to their state of ultimate perfection. He 
has gone away, as he said he should, "in order to 
prepare a place for us. 2 When he returns again, then 
shall that place which is being prepared, receive his 
followers into eternal rest and blessedness. 

§ 32. Co-operation and Opposition of the Angels in the 
Life of Christ. 

The life of the Redeemer upon earth, was the 
central and turning point of the whole history of the 
human race, and — on account of the peculiar posi- 
tion of man with respect to the universe — of the 
history of the whole universe also. 

Hence we have here, swelled to great power and 
concentrated, the efforts and strivings of angels and 
demons, of the seed of the woman and the seed of 
the serpent ; the one sympathizing and co-operating 
with the holy Redeemer, the other hating and op- 
posing him. On the one hand we see enmity and 
hate, an enlistment of all the powers of darkness 

1 Acts 1 : 11. 2 John 14 : 2. 

24 



278 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

to injure the Lord's Anointed and prevent the com- 
pletion of his glorious work. This satanic warring 
against the Prince of life w T as persisted in from the 
manger to the cross ! Herod's thirst for blood, the 
cruel persecutions of the high priests, the treachery 
of Judas, the wild and murderous clamor of the 
multitude, Pilate's fear of man, the temptation 
through hunger and the offer of worldly advantage 
in the wilderness, the temptation, of sorrow in the 
garden of Gethsemane — all these were enlisted by 
Satan against the holy Redeemer; — "For of a 
truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast 
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the 
Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered 
together ; for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy coun- 
sel determined before to be done!" 1 

The first, the chief, and the most decisive onset of 
the prince of darkness, was the temptation in the wil- 
derness. It was the same in form, substance and 
aim, as the the temptation of the first Adam. The 
latter, as we have already seen, was necessary and 
indispensable. But since the first Adam did not 
withstand the temptation, the second Adam had to 
be subjected to the same trial. As the false, the 
unnatural development of the human race, by which 
it was involved in death and ruin, began by subjec- 
tion to the power of the tempter, so also was it 
necessary that the new development which was to 
lead to the redemption, restoration and perfecting 
of the human race, should commence with the con- 
quest of this arch traitor. "And when the devil 

1 Acts 4 : 27, 28. 



CO-OPERATION AND OPPOSITION OF ANGELS. 279 

had ended all the temptation, he departed from Mm 
for a season." 1 

But it was necessary that the whole weight of 
human sorrows should come before him in the form 
of a temptation, as well as thirst for earthly gain 
and glory, so that he might be like to us in all 
things, and be tempted in all things like as we are, 
though without sin. 2 Hence Satan was permitted 
to tempt him anew and in another point — to try if 
he could not induce him to abandon his vocation as 
the Redeemer of men, by presenting to his mind the 
fearful burden of sorrows which awaited him. 

This temptation was first presented to him under 
the form of tender love ,and sympathizing regard, 
by the words of his disciple Peter : " Be it far from 
thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee !" But the 
Lord was not to be deceived ; he well knew how to 
distinguish between the weak and erring love of a 
disciple, which served as a covering to the designs 
of the tempter, and the satanic origin and bearing 
of the words spoken. Hence he said : " Get thee 
behind me, Satan ; for thou art an offence unto me !" 3 

But it was in the garden of Gethsemane that this 
same temptation displayed openly its full, its matured 
power. And when the Redeemer now came forth 
victorious from this temptation also, and prepared to 
face all the terrors of death, with courage undaunted, 
Satan himself hastened, in impotent rage, to bring 
these terrors quickly to pass, in order to — undo him- 
self and destroy his own power. He had put it into 
the heart of Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, to 

1 Luke 4 : 13. 2 Heb. 4 : 15. 3 Matt. 16 : 22, 23. 



280 BIBLICAL THEOBT OF THE TV ELD. 

betray his Master ; x Satan entered into this son of 
Simon after he received the sop from the hand of his 
Lord. 2 And now the whole multitude, inoculated 
with his infernal rancor, and raging like wild beasts 
against him who in pitying love left his throne in 
heaven to save them, cry out in fanatical rage: "Cru- 
cify him, crucify him." 

But, on the other hand, we behold the holy angels 
showing the liveliest interest in the Redeemer. 
Heaven was again opened, and the angels of God 
ascended and descended upon the Son of man. 3 
Angels announced to the elect that the time was 
near for which, 

" Patriarchs, and holy Seers, 
Had hoped for many weary years." 

And when the hour had arrived, when the ever-dur- 
ing wonder of the world's history had come to pass, 
in the lowly manger of Bethlehem, the angelic 
choirs praised in joyful, swelling anthems, the won- 
drous, the boundless grace of God. Ad gels also 
kept watch over the little child, prepared the way 
for his escape into Egypt, from the bloody Herod, 
and brought him safely back after the danger was 
past. 4 When the Redeemer came forth victorious 
from the temptation in the wilderness, "behold, 
angels came and ministered unto him;" 5 and when 
he had gloriously endured the fearful agony of Geth- 
semane, " there appeared an angel unto him from 
heaven, strengthening him. 6 And when he had now 



1 John 13 : 2. 2 John 13 : 27. 3 John 1 : 51. 

4 Matt. 2 : 13 19. 5 Matt. 4:11. 6 Luke 22 : 43. 



PROGRESS OF THE CONTEST. 281 

destroyed the power of death, had victoriously burst 
its bands and brought life and immortality to light, 
angels were the triumphant announcers of this vic- 
tory of life over death; and they, too, lingered be- 
hind, when the Lord ascended to heaven, to announce 
to the bereaved disciples that he should come again 
in glory. 

§ 33. Ascension of Christ, and Progress of the Contest 
till His Return. 

The death and resurrection of the Eedeemer 
brought his earthly work to a close. He had now 
procured salvation, and the means (means of grace) 
by which it might and should be applied to all who 
would not obstinately harden themselves against the 
grace of God. His work accomplished, the Lord 
ascends to heaven, returning to re-assume the glory 
he had with the Father before the foundations of the 
earth were laid. 

The warring of light against darkness was by no 
means yet ended — no, it still as ever went forward, 
and the earth was still the battle-field. Christ the 
Lord did indeed ascend to heaven, but not thereby 
did he withdraw himself from, the conflict. He still 
remains, since his ascension, the captain of salvation, 
the leader of the hosts of light — this now in its pro- 
per and comprehensive sense. 

The substance and significance of the ascension of 
Christ is comprehended in this, that he again took 
upon himself the "form of God" ] — the eternal Di- 
vine existence and mode of life — wmich he had re- 

1 Phil. 2 : 6. 
24* 



282 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

nounced in becoming incarnate and like to ns in all 
things, in order that through death he might destroy 
him that had the power of death. 1 That form of life 
which is peculiar to the Divine Being is this, that He, 
the Everlasting One, is at once as infinitely exalted 
above time and space (his transcendence), as he con- 
stantly and everywhere, with his essence and the 
energy of his will, pervades and controls, preserves 
and sustains both time and space (his immanence). 

Hence it is clear that the ascension of Christ was 
not merely a departure from the earth ; it was rather, 
at the same time, both a departure and a coming. It 
was a departure, in the sense that he returned to his 
Divine transcendence — in the sense that he was no 
longer bodily visible among his followers. But it was 
no less an all-pervading and plenary coming, in the 
sense that he now returned to his Divine immanence, 
in order that he might fulfil the promise, " lo ! I am 
with you always, even to the end of the world ; 2 and 
also, the promise, u where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." 3 

He who had humbled himself as the servant and 
minister of all, now resumed the sceptre of universal 
dominion as his sovereign right, and became Lord 
over all and blessed for evermore. God the Father 
placed him " far above all principalities and power, 
and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
is to come ; and put all things under his feet, and 
gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 

» Ileb. 2 : 14, 15. 2 Matt. 28 : 20. 3 Matt. 18 : 20. 



PE OGRESS OF THE CONTEST. 283 

which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all 
in all. 1 

Hence his saying : " All power is given to me in 
heaven and upon earth." 2 Hence might he w^ell 
assure his disciples : "It is expedient for you that I 
go away; 3 and again, "I go to prepare a place for 
you," and " in my Father's house are many man- 
sions." 4 

. To prepare a place for us. He shall bring, when 
he returns in glory, that place with him, "prepared 
as a bride adorned for her husband." 5 

But he has not left us " comfortless " 6 upon this 
poor earth, still groaning under the curse ; comfort- 
less amid all our sufferings and griefs in this " body 
of death; " 7 while he, in his Father's house above, 
where are found the throne of glory and the abodes 
of the blessed, prepares a place for us ; while he, as 
the ruler and judge of the world, conducts all things 
to their ultimate consummation, and thus provides 
and secures for man, that glory which awaits him in 
eternal life. For, being the ruler of the world, he is 
at the same time the head of the church, the first 
born among many brethren ; he pours out his Spirit 
upon all flesh, sends the Comforter to lead us into all 
truth, and to prepare us for our place as he (Christ) 
prepares it for us. 

Conflicts await us, severe conflicts ; for the Lord 
came not to send peace upon earth, but a sword 8 — 
not to send that peace which would be more disgrace- 
ful than the most hapless conflict, but a sword for 

1 Eph. 1 : 21-23. 2 Matt. 28 : 18. 3 John 16 : 7. 4 John 14 : 2. 
6 Rev. 21:22. 6 Jobnl4:18. 7 Rom. 7: 24. * Matt. 10: 34. 



284 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

such, a contest as may gain for us a true and lasting 
peace. He himself is still, as ever, the sovereign 
leader, the great champion in all the warrings 
between the hosts of light and the hosts of darkness; 
and he commands us to take our weapons from the 
armory of his Spirit — to " put on the whole armor of 
God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles 
of the devil; " to take to ourselves "the breast-plate 
of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of 
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
word of God. 1 

Since Satan has been foiled in all his attempts to 
prevent the accomplishment of the work of salvation, 
he now bends all his endeavors to prevent or hinder 
the appropriation of that salvation. Therefore "he 
goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
devour 2 — but "resist the devil," say the Scriptures, 
" and he will flee from thee." 3 

But the angels of God, on the other hand, are ever 
ready to protect and defend the elect against the 
powers of darkness. And although that visible, sen- 
sible manifestation of themselves and their power, 
which was still common even in the days of the 
Apostles, 4 ceased, as did all outward miracles in gene- 
ral, as soon as the gospel and the Church were im- 
movably fixed upon the rock of eternal salvation — 
still, by no means did they then cease to be actively 
and efficiently present amid our earthly affairs — with 
a presence which can be discovered by the eye of 
faith alone. For they are "all ministering spirits, 

• Eph. 6 : 11-17. 2 1 Pet 5:8. 3 James 4 : 7. 

* Acts 8 : 26 : 10 : 3 : 12 : 7, etc. 



PROGRESS OF THE CONTEST. 285 

sent forth to minister to them who shall he heirs of 
salvation." 1 And "there is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth." 2 

But in the pregnant future, when the development 
of the world has reached its ultimate goal, and the 
Lord visibly returns with great majesty and glory, 
then shall these bright beings surround him as the 
radiance of his own glory, ready to execute his will 
and bring the great judgment to pass. 

Till then, the harvest, the judgment of the great 
day, the tares sown by the hand of the evil one, grow 
un eradicated amid the good wheat of the field. The 
opposition, the antagonism ever becomes more 
marked, more striking, the conflict more desperate. 
All the powers of darkness now become enlisted for 
one last despairing effort, as the decisive hour draws 
speedily on. Anti-christ, the highest development 
and embodiment of all the powers of darkness, the 
exact counterpart of the true Christ, now appears at 
the close of the drama — He, " the man of sin, who 
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is 
God ; that wicked one, which shall be revealed, 
whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders." 3 

This is the Messiah of Satan's sending, possessing 
all the attributes of the spirit of the abyss : this is 
the Redeemer commissioned by Satan himself, to re- 
deem men after a Satanic manner — to free them from 
all Divine laws, to withdraw them from the new- 

1 Heb. 1 : 14. 2 Luke 15 : 10. 3 2 Thess. 2 : 3-10. 



286 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

creating influences of the Spirit, and introduce them 
into the liberty of the children of Satan. 

But the very fact of the mystery of iniquity hav- 
ing reached in Anti-christ its highest development, 
makes way for the speedy coming of the final judg- 
ment. As soon as the man of sin, the son of per- 
dition has revealed himself in all his impotent 
madness, then " shall the Lord consume him with 
the breath of his mouth, and destroy him with the 
brightness of his coming." 1 

§ 34. Return of Christ and Renovation of the Heavens 
and the Earth. 

Sudden, and unexpected " as a thief in the night," 2 
shall be the coming of the great day of the Lord : 
"as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth 
even unto the west, so also shall the coming of the 
Son of man be." 3 Sudden, inevitable and irreme- 
diable destruction shall come upon all the enemies 
of God, and they shall not escape. 4 The appearance 
of the now coming judgment of the world, shall be 
fore-shadowed by fearful signs in heaven and upon 
earth. All creation shall be seized with a sudden, 
strange, and indescribable woe. Terror and despair 
shall take hold of the godless ; even the hearts of 
the good shall seem to fail them, for fear, and for 
looking after those things that are about to come 
upon the earth. The anxious expectation of the 
creature shall be resolved into appalling fear, and 
the groanings of creation into fearful quakings; for 
every new thing in this sinful world is brought to 

1 2 Thess. 2 : 8. 2 lThess.5:2. 3 Matt. 24 : 27. 4 lThess.5:3. 



. 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 287 

the birth, not without the long since imposed tribute 
of pain and sorrow. Thus through the whole com- 
pass of creation : " upon earth there shall be distress 
of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves 
roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and 
for looking after those things which are coming 
upon the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be 
shaken; 1 but the Spirit and the bride (the church 
of Christ) say : Come ! . . . Even so, come, Lord 
Jesus." 2 

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days, 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give 
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the 
poivers of heaven shall be shaken. And theu shall 
appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and 
then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory. And he shall 
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and 
they shall gather together his elect from the four 
winds, from one end of heaven to the other." 3 — 
" The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first : then we which are alive and remain shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord." 4 " The day of the Lord will come as a thief 
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 

1 Luke 21 : 25, 26. 2 Rev. 22 : 17-20. 

3 Matt. 24 : 29-31. 4 1 Thess. 4 : 16, 17. 



288 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up." 1 

The Apostle John also beheld in sublime vision the 
developments of this last, this great day : " Fire fell 
down from God out of heaven, and devoured the 
enemies of God. . . . And I saw a great white throne, 
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 
the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place 
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God ; and the books were opened. . . . 
And the dead were judged out of those things that 
were written in the books, according to their works. 
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and 
death and hell delivered up the dead which were in 
them. . . . And whosoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And 
I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . And he 
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all 
things new." 2 

Thus shall "the earnest expectation of the crea- 
ture," wmich has for so many weary ages waited "for 
the maifestation of the sons of God," finally reach its 
long and earnestly desired object; for "the creature 
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children 
of God." 3 

Nature was created with the capability of being 
developed and also needing development ; it fell to 
the lot of the created spirit to conduct this outer 
world, this material creation, to its highest develop- 
ment, to its ultimate and absolute state of perfection. 

1 2 Pet. 3 : 10. 2 Rev. 20 & 21. 3 Rom. 8 : 19-21. 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 289 

We see this end now in part reached. A curse, fol- 
lowed with devastating ruin, had first been brought 
into this terrestrial region, by the fall of- the angels ; 
and, again by the fall of man. The celestial worlds, 
the dwelling-places of the angels, had also suffered 
through this double catastrophe ; not positively, but 
by privation, for by it the consummation of their high 
and perfect development, their harmonious connec- 
tion and absolutely perfect state, was hindered. Man 
had taken the place of the exiled angels ; he was to 
fill up the void, to check the disturbance, and restore 
the universe to its wonted harmony. But instead of 
so doing, he himself fell as the angels did before 
him, and thus dragged the earth a second time into 
devastating ruin. He thus became absolutely inca- 
pable of fulfilling his mission. Hence Christ, the 
second Adam, came in the stead of man, to renew 
and complete what man had destroyed and failed of 
accomplishing — to make all things new — the heavens 
and the earth. He was to finish the work of man, 
in conducting this world to its perfect state, and thus 
establishing harmony between our and all other 
worlds. But this could no longer be done in the 
method originally designed — by a quiet, gradual or- 
ganic development — for this method had been dis- 
turbed and destroyed by the entrance of sin. No : a 
new development was demanded, one which should 
complete its energetic course and perfect itself, only by 
breaking out in the appalling catastrophe, the consum- 
ing and purifying fires of the last day. But " a new 
heaven and a new earth,'' purified from all dross and 
defilement, shall proceed from those flaming elements 



290 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

— " a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness." x 

"We must at present, however, instead of permit- 
ting ourselves to be further carried along in our nar- 
rative, by the rapid stream of startling events to be 
disclosed on that inconceivably grand and majestic 
day — instead of proceeding immediately to the con- 
sideration of the changes which that day shall pro- 
duce in the condition of free, personal beings, stop a 
moment, to review with a hastv glance the coming 
changes and developments in material nature, which 
is devoid of personality. We have already spoken of 
these changes and developments ; it remains to take 
into more detailed and careful consideration, the dif- 
ficulties they individually present. 

1 2 Pet. 3 : 10-13 — comp. Is. 65 : 17 ; Rev. 21 : 1. 

2 The different points in that great day of the future cannot be 
separated and arranged in chronological order. It is scarcely to 
be expected that such an order -will be observed in the realization 
of the events predicted, but rather that all will take place at once. 
The appearance of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead, the trans- 
formation of the yet living, the purification of the earth, the judg- 
ment, the infliction and execution of the sentence, will all be the work 
of an indescribably glorious and solemn moment, pregnant with 
the weal and woe of a whole eternity. Just as the sun, appear- 
ing in all its magnificence and glory, produces a thousand different 
effects at the same time and by the same power — here causing a 
germ to be developed, a bud to unfold, fruit to ripen, the well- 
watered plains to abound — there, the nipped blossom to fade, the 
uprooted tree to wither, and the dry fields to be scorched — so also 
shall the coming of the everlasting, uncreated Sun, in all his ma- 
jesty, produce all at once, by the power of his holiness, according 
to the different objects affected thereby, the various effects of at- 
tracting and repelling, of cheering and appalling, of blessing and 
cursing, of purifying and consuming, of crowning with blessed- 
ness and filling with woe. 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 291 

The passages of Scripture we have quoted on the 
last two or three pages, evidently describe a grand 
catastrophe by which the world as it at present sub- 
sists, in its present condition, relations and connec- 
tions, is to be brought to an end. From one point 
of view, this catastrophe may be regarded as a des- 
truction of the world, as its complete overthrow. But 
Prophecy represents the end of the present economy 
as the commencement of a new order of things ; it 
places, side by side with the destruction of the pre- 
sent world, the rise of a new and more glorious one. 
Only when we keep in mind both sides of this ques- 
tion, and allow each aspect its proper weight — when 
we have succeeded in combining both into one well- 
proportioned (einheitlichen) view — only then, may we 
give ourselves credit for rightly apprehending the 
import of these prophetic touches. But this is no 
difficult matter. We are doubtless to recognize in 
the fires of the last day, not a destructive, but a puri- 
fying process, just as ore is cast into the furnace not 
to be consumed and annihilated, but that the true 
metal may be separated from the dross, and come 
forth pure as gold seven times refined. The world 
itself shall not cease to exist ; its present faulty, 
marred and imperfect condition, merely, shall pass 
away. That existence of the world which conforms 
to its original creation and destiny, shall not cease, 
but merely the existence of whatever belongs to it 
contrary to its first creation and destiny — the whole 
web of adverse and destructive influences and agen- 
cies, all incongruities and bad properties attached to 
it and implanted in its elements by the false and 



292 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

godless development chosen by its inhabitants, to- 
gether with all that is faulty and imperfect which 
has been prevented from being set aside on account 
of the presence of sin. 

That the sin-crushed earth, filled with death and 
woe, that the twice ruined earth, with its lone soli- 
tudes and dreary wastes, with its storms and convul- 
sions, its poisons and pestilences, its scathing heat 
and deadening frosts, with its lawless and wildly 
raging elements, with its countless perverted ends 
and agencies — that this earth must, before it passes 
into its state of ultimate and lasting perfection and 
becomes the happy abode of man redeemed, be sub- 
mitted to a purifying and renovating process, and 
that this process can only take place and be perfected, 
in the form of such a tremendous and awful catas- 
trophe as is to be realized on the last day, must be 
of itself apparentto every thoughtful mind. 

But that the heavens, the lofty abodes of those 
glorious beings which have been true to their des- 
tiny, have kept their first estate and ever persevered 
in unswerving obedience to God, that the heavens 
stand in need of the renovating powers of such a 
catastrophe ; — that the stars which shine with such 
immortal radiance from the sweeping arch above us, 
filling every beholder with the deepest sense of un- 
alloyed purity and unchangeable stability, of the 
most blessed harmony and undisturbed peace, shall 
fall from heaven and lose the position they have held 
for thousands, yea, perhaps, myriads of years — that 
the powers of heaven, which force themselves upon 
our minds as the types and representatives of all 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 293 

stability and perfection, shall be shaken and moved ; 
— that the starry canopy yonder above, with its 
countless sparkling gems, shall grow old like an 
earthly garment, and pass away that it may be re- 
newed in greater magnificence and perfection — this 
all does not strike the mind as quite so plain and 
reasonable. 

Many interpreters, in order to avoid the not insig- 
nificant and seemingly insurmountable difficulties 
attending a literal apprehension of the text of the 
prophecy here concerned, have sought to avail them- 
selves, by way of remedy, of strange, false, artificial 
and unnatural interpretations. 

The legitimacy in general of a literal interpreta- 
tion of these passages, has been contested, and they 
have been held as symbolic descriptions of subjective 
conditions in this human world. It is indeed not to 
be denied that, in the poetic language of the Old 
Testament, the obscuration of the Jight of the hea- 
venly bodies, of the sun, moon, and stars, is the 
image and comparison under which the extinction 
of mortal life or hope in individual persons, is repre- 
sented; 1 and still more frequently, the image to 
denote calamities and judgments visited upon whole 
states or nations. 2 It is not to be denied that more 
particularly the light of the sun is used as the sym- 
bol of Divine revelation, and the light of the moon 
to represent human knowledge, wisdom, or culture ; 3 



1 Eccles. 12 : 2 ; Jer. 15 : 9. 

2 As, for example, Is. 5 : 30 ; 13 : 10 ; 34 : 4 ; Jer. 4 : 28 ; Ezek. 
32 : 7, 8 ; Amos 8:9; Mich. 3 : 6. 

3 Rev. 12 : 1. 

25* 



294 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

and further, that the stars are used to represent the 
ministers of God's Church upon earth — the shining 
lights in the firmament of the Church. 1 ' 2 The ap- 
plication of the argument, however, drawn from a 
prophetic, figurative mode of speech, is not admissi- 
ble in the present case. And for this reason : Every 
thing that is intended to be represented in Matthew 
24th, which is the chief passage, under the figure of 
the sun and moon becoming dark, and the stars fall- 
ing from heaven, has been spoken of previously and 
in another place, in plain, direct and unmistakable 
words, as something entirely different from and not 
at all necessarily connected with those signs in the 
heavens. It is also further to be observed that the 
doctrine of a real destruction of the present earth, 
followed by the appearance of a new heaven and a 
new earth, pervades all Scripture, and is often men- 
tioned in such connection and with such clearness, 
that it becomes wholly impossible to interpret the 
passage in a figurative or symbolic sense. 3 — We have 
just the same reasons for believing that the signs of 
the coming of the Son of man, the falling of the 
stars and the obscuration of the sun and moon, are 
to be real, sensible appearances in the heavens, as 

1 Compare R. Stier : Die Eeden des Herrn Jesu, vol. II., p. 562. 

2 Dan. 8 : 10, 11 ; Rev. 1 : 20. 

3 In addition to the passages already mentioned, compare, also, 
Joel 3 : 3, 4 ; Haggai 2 : 6, with Heb. 12 : 26, 27 ; Ps. 102 : 26-28 
and Is. 34 : 4, with Rev. 6 : 12-14 ; Matt. 5 : 19 seq., etc. Comp., 
on the necessity of a literal interpretation, J. P. Lange: Leben 
Jesu, II., 3, p. 1273 seq., and particularly the very excellent work 
by J. A. L. Hebart : Die zweite Zukxmft Christi, eine DarsteUung der 
gesammten bibl. Eschatologie. Erlang., 1850. 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 295 

we have for believing that the star in the east at the 
birth of Christ, and the obscuration of the sun at 
his death, were real, outward, visible appearances. 
The truth with regard to the contested figurative 
apprehension is just this, that those appearances in 
the heavens leave us room to assume the existence 
of corresponding facts upon earth and among men, 
since heaven and earth, spirit and nature — mind 
and matter — form one closely connected and related 
whole. But such an assumption is altogether unne- 
cessary, for these passages themselves teach plainly 
and in direct terms, the real existence of such cor- 
responding facts (earthquakes, famines, pestilences, 
wars and rumors of wars). 

Another misinterpretation of these passages vir- 
tually (but undesignedly) reduces the reality of the 
occurrences foretold into a mere illusory pretence or 
show, and resolves their objective actuality into mere 
subjective perceptions. 1 The heavens, it would be 
maintained, are not to be renewed really, in and of 
themselves, according to their own proper nature and 
constitution, but shall merely present themselves as 
being so renewed, to the perceptions of men : they 
shall not themselves be changed, but merely the 
medium through which we view them. It is, to say 

1 Thus J. P. Lange, Verm. Schriften II., p. 249 : " In the same 
sense that the creation of the heavens is involved in the creation of 
the earth, in Gen. 1st, so that the pre-existence of the stars is not 
contradicted by the fact that they are first noticed as they appeared 
in relation to the earth, on the fourth day, when the atmosphere 
became purer and more homogeneous, so also may it be spoken of 
the new heavens in connection with the new earth. 



296 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

the least, probable that we shall be enabled, by the 
transformation and re-moulding of the earth and its 
atmosphere, as well as by the perfecting of our 
powers of vision, .and the increase of our mental capa- 
cities which we may reasonably hope hereafter to 
experience — that we shall be at once enabled by all 
these, to see the form, the splendor and glory of the 
heavens, much more distinctly, and with a more 
comprehensive range of vision than at present. And 
just here lies the truth contained in this false appre- 
hension of the passages before us. But it explains 
but one aspect of what is foretold — the renovation of 
the heavens — and this one but halfway. The grand, 
the real difficulty — that the heavens shall grow old, 
be changed, and vanish away, as is so distinctly and 
unmistakably foretold — still remains altogether un- 
explained, and still calling for solution. 

A third, and no less objectionable interpretation, 
would limit the purifying and renovating process of 
the last day, to our earth with its planetary heavens, 
just as the fourth day's work of the Hexsemeron is 
sought to be confined to the creation of the solar 
system. With respect, therefore, to the point before 
us — the destruction of the heavens — it is said we are 
to understand the Scriptures as speaking of our 
planetary heavens alone. But as we previously found 
the view respecting such a limitation of the fourth 
day's work to be inadmissible (§ 4), we now find this 
kindred view much more objectionable still. For 
the advantage that we would be enabled, by assum- 
ing the latter, far more easily to grasp the catastrophe 
which is to take place in the heavens, will never jus- 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 297 

tify us in arbitrarily limiting the application of words 
which treat of the whole created heavens, and which 
are in themselves so clear and unmistakable. But 
still, this view, also, may contain its measure of 
truth. For it is possible, yea, even probable, that 
by means of the close connexion, by means of 
the articulate organization which obtains in our 
solar system, the effects of the catastrophe which 
twice involved the earth in ruin, may have extended 
themselves more or less to the neighboring members 
of the system ; that the surges of that disastrous 
flood may have reached even to the outermost boun- 
dary of this special province of the universe. If 
such be indeed the fact, we can easily perceive that 
the final catastrophe of the judgment day, must also 
assume a different character here, from what it will 
present in the worlds contained in the heavens of the 
fixed stars — worlds which have not been immediately 
affected by blight of sin and death. We can also 
further perceive, why the transformation and renova- 
tion of the lower, the planetary heavens, which are 
to be placed in somewhat the same category as the 
earth, should be specially thorough and attended 
with astonishing displays of power. 

But we must not, however, give up this point, 
that the ivhole heavens, with all their hosts of stars, 
are to be subjected to an effectual change and trans- 
formation of their whole complexion and arrange- 
ment, of their mutual relations and references, but 
specially of their relations and references towards the 
earth ; and that hence, in spite of all the complete- 
ness which now obtains in the heavens, and in spite 



298 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

of all the excellence and blessedness of their present 
inhabitants, there is still demanded such a change 
and transformation as we have mentioned — a renova- 
tion and perfecting of the heavens themselves. 

In accordance with this view, we are compelled to 
assume that the present perfection of the heavens is 
not an absolute but merely a relative perfection — 
that flaws and defects still cleave to the heavens, so 
that, as says Job, " the stars also are not pure in his 
sight " (25 : 5). But this must be allowed at the out- 
set, that this imperfection consists not in the abstrac- 
tion of a degree of perfection originally possessed 
and received at the creation, but merely in the priva- 
tion of that degree of perfection in the heavens 
which it was designed they should attain — that they 
were not subjected to ruin through the sin and revolt 
of their inhabitants (as was the case with the earth), 
but were, by some circumstance or other, stopt or 
impeded in that course of development by which 
they were to arrive at a state of absolute perfection ; 
so that they might now reach that goal, only through 
the powerfal coming of Christ to close up the affairs of 
this world and renew both the heavens and the earth. 

These delaying circumstances are involved in the 
fact that the whole universe is one organic whole, so 
that one part of it cannot be brought into an abso- 
lutely perfect condition, while another part still 
remains imperfect — that disharmony was introduced 
into the music of the spheres, first, by the fall of 
part of the angels, and again, by the fall of man ; 
and that the good angels also, with the worlds they 
inhabit, while waiting for the judgment of the great 



RETURN OF CHRIST. 299 

day, are kept in a state of anxious expectation or 
delay. The more important the original position 
and the abode of the fallen angels, the more signifi- 
cantly and influentially, thereupon, man and his 
history were destined to be involved in the further 
development of the universe (§ 19), so much the 
greater must have been that disturbance which in- 
troduced such a discord into the harmony of the 
whole, which caused such a breach, such a chasm in 
the integrity of the whole ; and so much more op- 
pressively must its attendant sinister influences have 
borne upon the holy angels and their blessed abodes. 
But now, when at the end of this world's course the 
judgment is set, when Christ the Lord shall separate 
the good from the bad elements, by the purifying 
fires of the great day, when he shall burst the ham- 
pering bonds of the development, renew and reju- 
venate in the creature the divine powers of life — 
then, sudden as a flash shall the hidden and retarded 
perfecting process of the universe burst on the sight, 
in the form of one universal catastrophe, and then 
shall all the relations of the heavens to themselves 
and to the earth be changed and newly established. 
The objective point in the prospective transforma- 
tion and renovation of the heavens is this : the hea- 
vens shall really be changed in their whole complex 
cast and character, so as to form a new and a different 
heavens. But this change may, indeed, as all will 
allow, involve a subjective point also — the whole 
aspect of the heavens as they appear to the eye, as 
well as the impression they produce upon the mind, 
may be very different, since the powers of human 



300 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

vision are to be increased and the capacities of the 
mind exalted ; — while, on the other hand, it may 
very easily be the case that the catastrophe will 
assume a more mild and peaceful character in the 
worlds of the upper heavens, than in the lower ones 
of the solar system, which stand so closely related to 
our earth, and which hence have perhaps been more 
or less involved in the ruin brought upon the planet 
earth. 

The conflagration of the world, regarded as a 
purifying process, is to separate all the good from 
the bad elements in the w T orld ; it is to purify the 
true and noble metal from all admixture and defile- 
ment of dross. All the elements in the world which 
Satan may with right call his own, all dross and im- 
purities which are not capable of being renewed and 
ennobled, shall be returned to him as his peculiar 
possession. And they probably shall constitute the 
eternal abode of this arch-fiend and all his followers 
— that abode called figuratively by the Apostle John, 
" a lake of fire and brimstone," 1 described by Christ, 
as a place of " outer darkness, where there shall be 
weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," 2 and 
by Peter, as a place of "the mist of everlasting 
darkness." 3 

Thus are the heavens and the earth to be tho- 
roughly purified by the fires of the last day, and at 
length reach a state of high, complete, and everabid- 
ing perfection, in which all members shall be organi- 
* cally united with the whole, and where universal 
peace and harmony shall prevail. Thus is the earth 

1 Rev. 19 : 20 : 20 : 10. 2 Mark 8 : 12. 3 2 Pet. 2 : 17. 



JUDGMENT AND CONSUMMATION. 301 

to become, in accordance with its original destiny, 
the central and culminating point of the whole 
universe, the throne of the most immediate presence 
of God within the sphere of the created. For, says 
St. John the Divine: 1 "And I saw a new heaven 
and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea. 
And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as 
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a 
great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the taber- 
nacle of Grod is with men, 2 and he will dwell with 
them, and they shall be his people, and God him- 
self shall be witn them, and be their God. . . . And 

1 saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty 
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city 
had no need of the sun, neither of tne moon, to 
shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and 
the Lamb is the light thereof." 

§ 35. The Judgment and the Eternal Consummation, 

A similar separation between the good and the 
bad — the godly and the godless — shall take place in 
the world of spirits, through the great judgment of 

1 Rev. 21 : 1 seq. 

2 As to the signification of the expressions here used: "the 
new Jerusalem," "the holy city," "the tabernacle of God with 
men," compare my Lehrbucli der Jieil. Geschichte, 6th ed., $ 201, 

2 Anm. It is there supposed that the symbolico-typical significa- 
tion of the tabernacle, of the temple, and the holy city, as the 
place where God dwells with his people, here attains its highest, 
most comprehensive, and glorious fulfilment, its most complete 
realization. 

26 



302 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

the last day. " The hour is coming, in the which, all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth ; they that have clone good, unto the re- 
surrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto 
the resurrection of damnation." l All who have died 
shall, hence, come again to life — the ungodly, that 
they, too, may attain their unchangeable state, their 
consummation — in eternal damnation. They, not 
having been united to Christ, cannot have their 
bodies changed and fashioned like unto Christ's 
glorified body. £s"o : they must receive bodies con- 
formable to their spiritual condition ; bodies which 
shall be to themselves media of pain and condemna- 
tion, just as the bodies of the righteous, " fashioned 
like unto Christ's glorious body," 2 shall be to them 
media of enjoyment and blessedness. 

" Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
G-od ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 3 
Hence the necessity that those who still remain alive 
at the end of the world, should be subjected to some 
great and sudden change, in order that thev mav be 
advanced to the perfected state of those who shall 
rise from their graves. Paul lifts the veil from this 
mystery : 4 " "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
at the last trump ; for the trumpet shall sound, and 
we shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed." The terrors of death, 5 the abhorrent 
dread of corruption, and the transport of being glori- 
fied, are all here concentrated and combined in the 
very moment of the great change. 

1 John 5 : 28, 29. 2 Phil. 3 : 21. 3 1 Cor. 15 : 50. 

4 Verses 51 & 52. 5 Rom. 5 : 12. 



JUDGMENT 4XD CONSUMMATION. 303 

As to the nature and constitution of the glorified 
bodies of the righteous, we may learn much from 
the accounts the evangelists have given us, of the 
appearance of the risen Redeemer, since we are jus- 
tified upon the authority of the promise in Phil. 3 : 
21, (" he shall change our vile hod}*, that it may be 
fashioned like unto his glorious bod}-; ") in referring 
to the risen bodies of the saints, the qualities and 
characteristics which belong to his glorified body. In 
this connection, we may specially mention, the un- 
expected appearance of our Lord to his disciples, 
When the doors were shut, his frequent sudden ap- 
pearance to them, and his equally sudden disappear- 
ance from their sight, and also, that he was custom- 
arily and without any apparent design on his part, 
invisible to mortal eyes, etc. TTe may hence regard 
these as natural peculiarities of the glorified bod}' ; 
that its material composition is of the most refined 
and exquisite character, and of a nature so spiritual 
and ethereal, as not to be grasped by our senses as 
they are at present constituted ; that it is highly 
raised above the cramping conditions and circum- 
stances of the present life of the body ; that it is 
altogether free from the bonds and impediments 
necessarily belonging to "this tabernacle of clay; " 
that it serves with alacrity and unconditionally obeys 
every motion or command of the in-dwelling spirit, 
and that, even in the ranging flight of thought, the 
mind may still be attended by the willing and easy 
services of the body. 

The Apostle Paul, in particular, gives us, in 1st 
Cor. loth chapter, still further and more explicit infor- 



304 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

raation on this point. " It is sown," says he, " in cor- 
ruption, it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dis- 
honor, it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness, 
it is raised in power : it is sown a natural body, it is 
raised a spiritual body." Finally, we must here once 
more remember the words of our Lord : " In the 
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." 

Perhaps we may succeed in drawing from these 
known circumstances of glorified human bodies, 
some adequate conclusions as to the nature and cir- 
cumstances of the earth, after it shall have been 
purified and renewed. We may, with good reason, 
as we think, suppose that the prospectively new earth 
is to be purified, ennobled and glorified, in an analo- 
gous manner and to the same degree, as our corpo- 
real frames ; and that our future glorified bodies 
shall bear the same relation to the material of the 
then glorious earth, which now exists between our 
present bodies and the elements of the earth as it 
now subsists. 

The judgment of men virtually takes place in the 
resurrection itself, since the bodies they then indi- 
vidually receive, have already enstamped upon them, 
the marks which characterize the results of the judg- 
ment in each particular case. But to the prophet's 
mind, as to the human mind generally, the single 
points in this great closing scene, which the exalted 
Son of Man shall cany through all together, as 
though they called for but one exercise of his power, 
must appear separately and in due order. Hence 
the judgment is represented by the prophet, as 



JUDGMENT AND CONSUMMATION. 805 

something different from and subsequent to the 
resurrection. 

The true nature of the last judgment is best 
learned from the parable of the division of the sheep 
from the goats. 1 " Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foun- 
dation of the world;" and "Depart from me, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels." 

But as the final catastrophe in the material crea- 
tion, which is devoid of all personality, is to be wide- 
spread and general, is to stretch itself over the whole 
universe, affecting both the heavens and the earth, 
so also the last judgment is not to be confined alone 
to men, but is to embrace the angels also, in its 
solemn, all-disposing, and closing process. As the 
judgment in the case of the redeemed will be no 
judgment, inasmuch as they retain no sin for which 
they might be judged, and yet still a judgment, since 
it will deliver them from all the evils inseparably 
connected with sin and death, so also shall it be in 
the case of the angels of God. Thus, then, may it 
be explained, how the latter are represented by the 
Scriptures, as being, on the one hand, objects of the 
judicial process, and on the other, as subjects actively 
engaged in carrying on this process. It is said of the 
angels, Matt. 13 : 49, " They shall come forth and sever 
the wicked from among the just;" and the saints are re- 
presented as being helpers and co-workers with Christ 
in the work of judgment, as being those whom he is 
not ashamed to call brethren, to whom also, as mem- 

1 Matt. 25 : 31 seq. 
26* 



306 BIBLICAL THEORY OF TIIE WORLD. 

bers of his body, be will give an interest in all bis 
glory. 1 Christ himself, speaking to his disciples, says : 
"Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have fol- 
lowed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man 
shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit 
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel" 2 — and the Apostle Paul appeals to the Co- 
rinthians : "Know ye not that the saints shall judge 
the world?" . . . "Know ye not that we shall judge 
angels?" 3 

Thus do we see Satan's project, so long and ar- 
dently pushed, brought to a fruitless end ; the final 
sentence of judgment pronounced and executed. 
\Ve see man also, whom he had dazzled with the 
delusive prospect of becoming, by rebellion against 
God, as God, made, through the boundless grace of 
God in Christ, partaker of all the glory and blessed- 
ness of the Deity. For God has become, for time 
and eternity, as man, so that man might for eternity 
become as God. 

Christ in anticipation of this time says, in his in- 
tercessory prayer: 4 "The glory which thou gavest 
me I have given them, that they may be one, even as 
we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may 
be made perfect in one ; and that the world may 
know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them 
as thou hast loved me," &c. Paul says, Eom. 8 : 17, 
that as children of God we are also " heirs of God 
and joint-heirs with Christ;" —the Apostle John 
affirms that "we shall be like H im," 5 and Peter 

Tj^lTT^C) seq. 2 Matt. 19 : 28. 3 1 Cor. 6 : 2, 3. 

« John 17. 5 1 John 3 : 2. 



JUDGMENT AND CONSUMMATION. 307 

speaks of " exceeding great and precious promises, 
through which we may he partakers of the Divine 
nature." 1 

The great judgment shall close the present and 
introduce the future age of the world. The grand 
characteristic of this future age shall consist in this, 
that time shall then be absorbed into eternity and 
become one with it. Time shall not cease to be 
time, any more than the creature shall cease to be a 
creature; for time and the creature are correlatives 
which may never be separated — neither of them can 
exist without the other. But time, by merging into 
eternity, shall partake of all the attributes of eternity, 
just as the humanity of Christ, since his exaltation 
to the right hand of the Father, partakes of all the 
attributes belonging to the Godhead of the Son, with 
which this humanity is personally united; and just 
as we also, through the mediation of this humanity, 
shall become partakers of the Divine nature. Thus 
shall all historical developments, all changes, be 
brought forever to a close. The creature shall have 
reached a state of the fullest and closest commu- 
nion with God, the state for which it was originally 
destined (and beyond which no higher development 
is possible or conceivable) ; or — in case it have per- 
sistently refused the saving grace of God — a state 
of absolute separation from God (such as cuts off all 
possibility of a return to him or re-union with him). 

1 2 Pet. 1 : 4. 



308 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

§ 36. Retrospective G-lance at the Position of the Angels. 

We shall close the present chapter with a retro- 
spective glance at the position of the angels in rela- 
tion to that of man. 1 

We are accustomed, without special thought on 
the subject, to look on the angels as beings of a 
superior nature, as holy and blessed spirits, who 
surpass us as much in power and glory as heaven 
does the earth. And this view is undoubtedly the 
correct one, so long as it proceeds from the contrasted 
present conditions of angels and men. For the 
Scriptures give to man in his present state, where he 
is subject to the curse, and groans beneath the bur- 
den of his sins, a position far below that of the 
angels, whom they set up on high as principalities 
and powers, as mighty champions of God, who 
esteem it their highest honor to execute his com- 
mands and exercise toward him adoring love; as 
the heavenly hosts, from whom the king of the whole 
universe does not disdain to borrow one of his names 
(Jehovah Sabaoth). 

But whether, hence, this present superior might 
and dignity, is necessarily possessed by the angels, 
so that it shall outlive all developments and changes ; 

1 The position of the angels in the economy of the universe has 
seldom been sufficiently regarded. The old Protestant theology, 
however well it did in frowning down upon angel-olatry, never- 
theless does not seem to have arrived at a clear and unprejudiced 
apprehension of the Biblical doctrine of the angels. As to our 
view of the relation of men and angels, it is essentially agreed 
with by Molitor, Philos. der Geschichte, II., p. 115, obs. ; Ebrard, 
p. 57 seq. ; Martensen, Chr. Dogmatic., Kiel, 1850, p. 153 seq. 



POSITION OF THE ANGELS. 309 

whether it be grounded in their original nature, in 
the very essence of their being as given them at 
their creation, and shall hence outlast all develop- 
ments and manifest itself in eternity — this is another 
question, and one to which upon the ground of 
Divine revelation, and in opposition to generally 
received notions, we must oppose a most decided 
negative. 

It cannot, indeed, be denied, on the one hand, 
that the nature with which the angels were endowed 
at their creation, was relatively superior to that of 
man — that it was a nature already unfolded through 
the creation itself. This admission is founded on 
the fact that the angels, being created without sex, 
undoubtedly possessed from the first, all the advan- 
tages arising from a provision so unlike that in the 
human economy — advantages which man was to 
attain only at the end of his development. But this 
was not an advantage absolutely, but merely rela- 
tively, and was more than balanced by correspond- 
ing advantages in the human race, arising from the 
possession of sexuality (compare § 16-18). 

But man, on the other hand, was created in the 
image of God, as his deputy and representative, and 
was from the very beginning destined for a calling 
far above that of any angel. From this original 
position, from this high dignity, he fell into an estate 
of sin, misery, and death. But for the very reason 
that his original position was so all-important, not 
only with respect to this world which was assigned 
to him as a place of abode and a place where to em- 
ploy his activities, but also in respect to the whole 
universe — for this very reason did God himself take 



310 BIBLICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

his place, become man here upon earth, in order to 
redeem man, and, with man redeemed, reach the 
pre-determined goal. Were man indeed the least 
of all creatures, in respect to his original position, 
the wonderful fact, that God became man, that he 
took human nature into personal union with him- 
self, and that he shall henceforth ever remain God- 
man — this fact alone is enough to raise man to a 
position of dignity, honor and significance, far above 
that of any other created being. 

And is it possible that we can still cherish doubts 
as to the new, unparalleled and sublime position to 
which man is to be raised by redemption, when we 
reflect that he is to be adopted as a son into the 
family of God, to become an heir of God, and a 
joint-heir with Christ ; l that he is destined to become 
one with the Father through the Son, as the Son is 

1 ["If human nature had, in its native construction, lacked any- 
capital element — intellectual or moral — that is possessed by 
higher orders, it could not have admitted of such an alliance as it 
has (with Divinity). . . . Is it asked on any side, what do we 
mean — what do we pretend to, when we speak at large of glory, 
honor, immortality ; or of a crown of life, or of being constituted 
kings and priests unto God ; or of sitting on thrones to exercise 
powers of judgment, even over superior natures? "We reply 
at once, that we pretend to whatever is involved in the union of 
the members with the Head — that Head being divine; and we 
expect whatever may fairly be presumed when it is said of all 
believers, that they shall be l like Him/ and near Him (as his 
kinsmen), who is the ' brightness of the Father's glory, and the 
express image of his person." . . "In the scheme of redemp- 
tion, the original purpose of the Creator, when he said : 'Let us 
make man in our image/ is at once expounded and authenticated, 
and it is seen that nothing great or illustrious was to be denied 
him." — Isaac Taylor, Saturday/ Evening, pp. 317-347. — Tr], 



POSITION OF THE ANGELS. 311 

one with the Father, and to be made a partaker of the 
Divine nature ? when we consider that the office of 
judging the world, yea, of judging angels them- 
selves, is to be entrusted to the saints ? 

Angels, on the contrary, are never represented as 
being the offspring of God, as bearing the image of 
God in that eminent sense applicable to man — an 
image that rendered possible, yea, even shadowed 
forth and realized beforehand, as it were, the incar- 
nation of God. They are never spoken of as the 
rulers and judges of the world, as co-heirs with 
Christ, and brethren of our Lord; or as partakers 
of the Divine nature. Eo : they were created as 
messengers of Grod, as ministering spirits, sent forth 
to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. 

The second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
bears direct testimony to the correctness of the views 
we have advanced. The Apostle there, by the ap- 
plication of the 8th Psalm to Christ, infers the 
superiority of his human nature over the nature of 
the angels. But all that holds good of the human 
nature of Christ the Son of man, the second Adam, 
also holds good of all believers, for they are all cre- 
ated anew in him, and shall bear the image of the 
heavenly, just as they have borne the image of the 
earthly. 1 To whatever sublime height the human 
nature of Christ is raised, by means of its personal 
oneness with the Godhead, above angels and arch- 
angels, equally high shall the faithful of the New 
Covenant, the members of the body of Christ, be 
raised hereafter (when they shall be made perfect) 
above all angels and every living creature. 

1 1 Cor. 15 : 49. 



CHAPTER FIFTH. 
ASTRONOMICAL INVESTIGATIONS AXD RESULTS. 

" Non propterea abjicienda est doctrina certa et utilis vitae, de 
multis rebus etiamsi multa ignoramus, prgeparemus etiatn nos ad 
illam oeternani academiam, in qua et integram plysicen discemus* 
cum ideam mundi nobis architectus ipse monstrabit." 

Melaxchthonis Initio Doctr. Pliys. prcefat. 

We have been conducted by the Spirit of Pro- 
phecy, through a realm of knowledge hidden from 
mortal eye ; but one which is ever in painful remem- 
brance and ardent hope, claimed and greeted by the 
restless longings of the human mind, created in the 
image of God and for God, as its true, its rightful 
possession. We now hasten to explore another, yet 
a related sphere, which, though lying at a distance 
so remote, has been forced to disclose itself to the 
bold and piercing glance of man. Ourselves untra- 
velled in its labyrinthine paths, we shall seek the 
hand of safe and practised guides, who will point 
out and explain to us the wonders of a region which 
has but lately been reclaimed from the depths of 
space, and added to the province of human know- 
ledge. 1 

1 We do not of course design to give instruction in regard to 
matters of astronomy in the present chapter. Our object is 
merely to place in connection before the reader, in a general way, 
such facts and views pertaining to this domain of science, as may 
serve to establish and unfold the Biblical theory of the world, or 
such as may stand in alleged contradiction to that theory, in 
order thereby to gain a basis for the discussion of the succeeding 

(312) 



THE SUN. 313 

§ 1. The Sun. 

The Sun, the mighty king of day, first attracts our 
attention. Two all-controlling agencies constitute 
the sceptre of his dominion — gravity and light. His 
volume is so enormous as to be capable of furnishing 
material for the composition of almost one million 
and a half such globes as ours. Were all the planets 
and moons of the solar system thrown together into 
one mass, they would not constitute a body of more 
than the five-hundredth part the volume of this vast 
central sphere. The proportion is somewhat different 
when gravity is taken as the principle of comparison. 
The sun, with little over one-fourth the density of 
the earth, still surpasses it in weight 345,936 l times ; 

chapter. "VVe may, however, recommend the following treatises, 
as sources of information proper in regard to astronomical science. 
The works of J. H. M'adler (populdre Astronomie, 4th ed., Berlin, 
1849 ; Naclitrdge thereto, Berlin, 1852 ; Astronomische Briefe, 
Mitau, 1846): the work of J. Lamont (Astron. und Erdmagnetis- 
mus, Stuttg., 1851) : of John Herschel {Outlines of Astronomy, 
Lond., 1849, 3d ed., 1850) : of Humboldt (Kosmos) : the works of 
G. H. von Schubert (Die TJrwelt und die Fixsterne, 2d ed., Dresd., 
1839 ; Lehrbuch der StemJcunde, 3d ed., Erlang., 1847 ; Natur- 
lehre, Calw., 1847 ; Geschichte der Natur., vol. I., 3d ed., also 
under the title, Das Weltgebdude, die Erde und die Zeiten des 
Menschen auf der Erde, Erlang., 1852. 

1 It is, therefore, " certain beyorrd doubt, that no creature be- 
longing to our earth is possessed of strength enough to move its 
limbs or walk upon the surface of the sun, as upon the earth ; 
since the force of gravity is some 28J times more powerful there 
than upon the surface of our globe. The greater and more dense 
the world to be inhabited, the stronger must be the bodies of its 
inhabitants. The most Herculean frames of the earth, were they 
transported to the sun, would at once reveal themselves as the 
27 



i 



314 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

and the combined weight of all the other bodies 
belonging to the system, about 700 times. This vast 
excess of gravity in the sun, binds all the lesser 
masses of its vassals so irresistibly to itself, within 
its own control, that were they all to appear in con- 
junction on one side of the sun, and there expend 
their united powers of attraction upon that great 
sphere, their influence would scarcely visibly affect 
it. But still their nature and position are not wholly 
of a passive and subordinate character; they pos- 
sess likewise, independent, individual life-powers; 
spontaneous forces never to be suppressed, in addi- 
tion to mere receptive capacities. Were it not that 
the inalienable and unconquerable power of the 
proper and independent movement of the planets 
away from the sun, balances the preponderating 
attractive force of the central body ; were it not that 
the centripetal force is opposed by the centrifugal ; l 
mass would be hurled against mass with appalling 
and destructive power. These terms, borrowed from 

most helpless and pitiable weaklings." — M'adler, Astron. Briefe, 
p. 236. 

1 ["A planet moves in its elliptical orbit with a velocity varying 
every instant, in consequence of two forces : the one tending to 
the centre of the sun, and the other in the direction of a tangent 
to its orbit, arising from the primitive impulse given at the time 
it was launched into space. Should the force in the tangent cease, 
the planet would fall to the sun "by its gravity. Were the sun not 
to attract it, the planet would fly off in the tangent. Thus, when 
the planet is at the point of its orbit furthest from the sun, his 
action overcomes the planet's velocity, and brings it towards him 
with such an accelerated motion, that at last it overcomes the 
sun's attraction, and, shooting past him, gradually decreases in 
velocity until it arrives at the most distant point, when the sun's 
attraction again prevails." — Tr.] 



THE SUN. 815 

the vocabulary of mechanical science, are scarcely 
adequate to note the proper secret nature of the mys- 
terious reciprocal action which here takes place, 
much less to exhaust its whole significance. Here, 
too, we meet with a mysterious sphere of dynamic 
life-forces, where proud science is brought to a stand 
by a " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." 
We can indeed behold the manifestations of the 
secret life-forces, which appear in the material 
frame-work; but these forces themselves, the ani- 
mating soul, we cannot fathom. Though Kepler, 
the physiologist of the heavens, with prophetic 
powers of vision, has permitted us, in his three laws, 
to catch some glimpses of the secret vital relations 
of our solar system ; and though the incomparable 
Sir Isaac Newton, following in the footsteps of Kepler, 
cast the treasures his predecessor had dug from the 
mines of knowledge, into current coin, by embod}'- 
ing them in his celebrated laws of gravitation, and 
thus rendered them tangible and fruitful to science ; 
what does it all amount to, but merely to open to the 
human science a new theatre of effort and inade- 
quate attainment? — how little, really, with all this 
advance, is the innate thirst of the human mind 
after knowledge satisfied ! l 

Still more mysterious and equally unfathomable is 
the other sovereign power of the sun — its radiant, 

1 Kepler's laics are as follow : " The planets revolve about the 
sun in ellipses (mostly varying but very little from circles), hav- 
ing the sun in one of their foci. 2. If a line be drawn from the 
centre of the sun to any planet, this line, as carried forward by 
the planet, will sweep over equal areas in equal portions of time. 
3. The squares of the periodic times of the planets are as the 
cubes of their mean distances from the sun." From these Newton 



316 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

ardent, and all-enlivening light. The nature of light 
is still a problem, which, just as all the secret courses 
of the processes of life, has never been solved. 
Its solution is, indeed, perhaps not within the com- 
pass of human attainments. The system of emana- 
tions, which formerly obtained in connection with 
this problem, is now generally abandoned on the 
part of science. And, doubtless, the theory of un- 
dulations will also have to give way before that later 
and more profound theory, according to which light 
originates from the co-incident activity of cosmical 
contrasts, induced through a galvanic excitement of 
latent elementary light or light-ether. " Were not 
your eye adapted to the sun, how could you behold 
the sun?" How could the sun light up the earth, 
were not the nature of the earth adapted to receive 
the light — were it not impressible and excitable by 
light ? To the masculine exciting agent, corresponds 
a feminine excitable object; to the imparting agent, 
a receiving object; the former remains an exciting 
and imparting agent, only so long and so far as it is 
opposed by a corresponding object, capable of being 
excited and of receiving, which from this very cir- 
cumstance must partake of the same nature. Thus 
much, however, is satisfactorily known; that the 

deduced the law of gravitation, according to which attraction de- 
creases in proportion as the square of the distance increases. For 
a more complete understanding of the laws of Kepler, and their 
relation to the laws of life in general, compare Schubert, Die Ur- 
welt, sec. IV., but particularly his Ahndungen e. allg. Gescht. d. 
Lebens, in the second section of the volume : also Hugi, Grund- 
zuge einer allgem. NaturansicJit, vol. I., Solothurn, 1841, p. 64 
seq., 192 seq. 



THE SUN. 317 

atmosphere of the sun is the source of light to the 
planets of our system, and that this atmosphere sur- 
rounds the sun, a dark body in itself, to the height 
of from 500 to 600 geographical miles. "We inhabi- 
tants of the earth behold a vast expanse of some 
600,000 million square miles, (the extent of super- 
ficies the sun presents to us,) contracted to a small 
disk of one foot in diameter, and though its concen- 
trated rays strike our eyes with such dazzling bril- 
liancy, there have not been wanting astronomers, 
who have maintained that were this light equally dis- 
tributed over the enormous body of the sun itself, its 
effects might not be so blinding l there, but moderate 
and beneficent." 2 

1 ["In measuring, photometrically, the light of the three diffe- 
rent structures of the sun, Sir William Herschel found that the 
light reflected outwards by the clouds of the inferior stratum, 
was equal to 469 rays out of 1000, or less than one-half of the 
light of the outer stratum ; and that the light reflected by the 
opaque body of the sun below was only seven rays out of 1000. 
Hence he concluded that the outer stratum of the self-luminous 
or phosphoric clouds, was the region of that light and heat which 
are transmitted to the remotest part of the system : while the 
inferior stratum, which is obviously of a different character from 
the other, is intended to protect the inhabitants of the sun from 
the blaze of the stupendous furnace which encloses them. In con- 
firmation of this view, the faint illumination — the seven rays out 
of a thousand — is a proof that the light of the outer stratum, and 
consequently its heat, must be extremely small on the dark body 
of the luminary which we see through what are called the solar 
spots, which are now universally admitted to be openings in the 
luminous stratum, and not opaque scoria floating on its surface." 
More Worlds than One, Brewster, p. 98. No mention is here made 
of the true outer or third stratum of the solar investment. — Tr.] 

2 Schubert, Urwelt, p. 22. 

27* 



318 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

Thus we see that the difference between the sun 
and the planets is by no means certainly so great as 
it is ordinarily taken to be. The solid central body 
of the sun seems to be of a planetary nature, and at 
the very place where the difference appears to be 
most marked, in the atmospheres of the sun and the 
planets respectively, even there "the distinction is no 
greater nor more pervading than that existing be- 
tween two beings of the same species and internal 
constitution, but differing in sex, one being mascu- 
line and the other feminine. For the atmosphere 
of planets also, and, still more, that of the comets, 
partakes, under certain circumstances, of the attri- 
butes of an independently self-luminous substance, 
giving out light without the intervention of any 
agitation from without. Indeed, the quality which 
we call transparency is, in a certain respect, nothing 
more than an attribute of a substance which is co- 
luminous and self-luminous through merely negative 
excitement from without." 1 "The contrast," says 
another student of nature, 2 " in which the sun and 
the planets stand to each other, as bodies that give 
and bodies that receive light, appears not to be a 
complete and absolute one, any more than do many 
other contrasts in nature. It cannot be said that the 
planets do not possess any proper power in them- 
selves of developing light. The northern light of 
the earth, the remarkable circumstance that some- 
times when our skies are without a moon, the clouds 
become luminous through some influence from above, 

1 Schubert, Urwelt, p. 21. 

2 Perty, Allgem. Naturgesch. I., p. 222. 



THE SUN. 319 

the illumination of the dark side of Venus, the total 
eclipse of the moon in which it does not become 
altogether invisible, though receiving no light at all 
from the sun, and perhaps, also, the so intense light 
of Jupiter and Yesta — all these indicate this remark- 
able fact. Thus it appears, therefore, that as the sun 
contains a dark body, something of a planetary 
nature, so, also, each planet possesses something of a 
solar nature ; but as the solar principle predominates 
in the sun, so likewise does the planetary principle 
in the planets." Indeed, Hugi, who holds gravity to 
be a polar relation between the centre and circum- 
ference, a tending of the individual members to the 
centre of the whole ; and light to be the directly op- 
posite working — a stretching of the grand centre of the 
whole upon the individual members of the periphery, 
— expresses himself to this effect, in his above-men- 
tioned ingenious original work (page 44) ; that very 
probably the gravity of the planets in relation to the 
body of the sun, manifests itself in the form of light, 
so that, conversely, the effect of the sun in produc- 
ing light upon the planets, appears upon the sun it- 
self, under the nature of gravity, or as an outward 
striving towards the planets by which it is encircled. 



[Some additional facts and views in regard to the sun may not 
be without interest. This great central sphere, as well as the 
planets which are dependent upon it, is possessed of an axial ro- 
tation. " Its period of rotation is 25 days, 7 hours, and 48 
minutes. The axis upon which it revolves is very nearly perpen- 
dicular to the plane of the earth's orbit, and the motion of rota- 
tion is in the same direction as the motion of the planets round 
the sun : that is, from the west to the east." The remarkable 



320 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

phenomena of the solar spots happily furnish us with the means 
of arriving at the period of rotation in this case, which otherwise 
would, in all probability, present insuperable difficulties to the 
astronomer. The spots are all found to revolve in the same time 
— something over 25 days. " The only circumstance of regular- 
ity which can be said to attend these remarkable phenomena is 
their position upon the sun. They are invariably confined to two 
moderately broad zones parallel to the solar equator, separated 
from it by a space several degrees in breadth. The equator itself, 
and this space which thus separates the macular zones, are abso- 
lutely divested of such phenomena." .... "The prevalence of 
spots on the sun's disc is both variable and irregular. Sometimes 
the disc will be completely divested of them, and will continue so 
for weeks or months ; sometimes they will be spread on certain 
parts of it in great profusion. Sometimes the spots will be small, 
but numerous ; sometimes individual spots will appear of vast 
extent; sometimes they will be manifested in groups, the penum- 
bras or fringes being in contact." 

" The duration of each spot is also subjected to great and irre- 
gular variation. A spot has appeared and vanished in less than 
twenty-four hours, while some. have maintained their appearance 
and position for nine or ten weeks, or during nearly three com- 
plete revolutions of the sun upon its axis The magnitude 

of the spots and the velocities with which the matter composing 
their edges and fringes moves, as they increase and decrease, are 
on a scale proportionate to the dimensions of the orb of the sun 
itself. When it is considered that a space upon the sun's disc, 
the apparent breadth of which is only a minute, actually mea- 
sures 27,960 miles, and that spots have been frequently observed, 
the apparent length and breadth of which have exceeded 2 / , the 
stupendous magnitude of the regions they occupy may be easily 
conceived. The velocity with which the luminous matter at the 
edges of the spots occasionally moves, during the gradual increase 
or decrease of the spot, has been in some cases found to be enor- 
mous. A spot, the apparent breadth of which was 90", and into 
which our earth might have dropped without grazing its edges, 
was observed by Mayer to close in about 40 days. Now, the 
actual linear dimensions of such a spot must have been 41,940 
miles, and, consequently, the average daily motion of the matter 






THE SUN. 321 

composing its edges must have been 1050 miles, a velocity equiva- 
lent to 44 miles an hour." 

These spots are now generally supposed to be excavations in 
the- luminous envelope of the sun, though they have also been 
supposed to be vast scoriae or masses of incombustible matter 
floating upon the surface of the sun. Sir J. Herschel, who has 
devoted much attention to the subject of solar spots, believes the 
rupture in the luminous investment of the sun, giving rise to the 
phenomena of solar spots, to result from the action of agencies 
somewhat like the trade-winds and anti-trades, hurricanes, torna- 
does, water-spouts, and other violent atmospheric disturbances 
upon our earth, induced by somewhat similar conditions of axial 
rotation, equatorial accumulation of atmosphere, unequal tem- 
perature, and the like, in connection with the sun itself. These 
agencies must, of course, be proportionate in extent and power to 
the surpassing size of the sun. It will be observed that the 
region of the spots in the sun corresponds to that of greatest at- 
mospheric disturbance upon our globe. The possibility of such a 
production of solar spots may perhaps be better understood after 
considering the sun's atmosphere as a whole. 

"We may be permitted, in this connection, to make some extracts 
from a very interesting paper on the physical consitution of the 
sun, by Arago, part of which may be found in the Annual of Scien- 
tific Discovery, 1853, p. 135 seqq. 

After briefly reviewing the phenomena of the solar spots, and 
the peculiar radiance, less luminous than the rest of the orb, with 
which they are surrounded, — the penumbra, M. Arago says: 
"This penumbra, first noticed by Galileo, and carefully observed 
by his astronomical successors in all the changes which it under- 
goes, has led to a supposition concerning the physical constitu- 
tion of the sun, which at first must appear altogether astonishing. 
According to this view, the orb would be regarded as a dark body, 
surrounded at a certain distance by an atmosphere, which might 
be compared to that enveloping the earth, when composed of a 
continuous bed of opaque and reflecting clouds. To this first at- 
mosphere would succeed a second, luminous in itself, and which 
has been called the photosphere. This photosphere, more or less 
removed from the interior cloudy atmosphere, would determine, 
by its circumference, the visible limits of the orb. According to 



322 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

this hypothesis, spots upon the sun would appear as often as there 
were found in the concentric atmospheres, corresponding vacant 
portions, which would permit us to see exposed the dark central 
body. Those who have studied with powerful instruments, pro- 
fessional astronomers, and competent judges, acknowledge that 
this hypothesis concerning the physical constitution of the sun, 
supplies a very satisfactory account of the facts. Nevertheless, 
it is not generally adopted ; recent authorities describe the spots 
as scoriae floating on the liquid surface of the orb, and issuing 
from solar volcanoes, of which terrestrial volcanoes are but a 
feeble type. 

"It was desirable, then, to determine, by direct observation, 
the nature of the incandescent matter of the sun ; but when we 
consider that a distance of 95,000,000 of miles separates us from 
this orb, and that the only means of communication with its visi- 
ble surface, are luminous rays issuing therefrom, even to propose 
this problem seems an act of unjustifiable temerity. The recent 
progress in the science of optics, has, however, furnished the 
means for completely solving this problem. 

" None are now ignorant that natural philosophers have suc- 
ceeded in distinguishing two kinds of light, viz., natural and 
polarized. A ray of the former of these lights exhibits, on all 
points of its surface, the same properties ; whilst, with regard to 
polarized light, the properties exhibited on the different sides of 

its rays are different Before going further, let us remark, 

that there is something wonderful in the experiments which have 
led philosophers legitimately to talk of the different sides of a ray 
of light. The word 'wonderful/ which I have just used, will 
certainly appear natural to those who are aware that millions and 
millions of these rays can simultaneously pass through the eye 
of a needle, without interfering one with the other. Polarized 
light has enabled astronomers to augment the means of investi- 
gation by the aid of some curious instruments, among others, the 
polarizing telescope, which . . . furnishes a very simple means 
of distinguishing natural from polarized light. 

" It has long been believed, that light emanating from incan- 
descent bodies, reaches the eye in the state of natural light, when 
it has not been partially reflected or strongly refracted, in its pas- 
sage. The exactitude of this proposition failed, however, in cer- 



THE SUN. 823 

tain points. A member of the Academy has discovered that light 
emanating under a sufficiently small angle, from the surface of a 
solid or liquid incandescent body, even when polished, presents 
evident marks of polarization ; so that in passing through the 
polarizing telescope or polariscope, it is decomposed into two 
colored pencils. The light emanating from an inflamed gaseous 
substance, such as is used in street illumination, on the contrary, 
is always in its natural state, whatever may have been the angle 
of its emission. The means used to decide whether the sub- 
stance which renders the sun visible is solid, liquid, or gaseous, 
will be nothing more than a very simple application of the fore- 
going observations, in spite of the difficulties which seem to arise 
from the immense distance of the orb. 

"Observations made any day of the year, looking 

directly at the sun, with the aid of powerfully polarizing tele- 
scopes, exhibit no trace of polarization. The inflamed substance, 
then, which defines the circumference of the sun, is gaseous. 
We can generalize this conclusion, since, through the agency 
of rotation, the different points of the surface of the sun come in 
succession to form the circumference. This experiment removes 
out of the domain of simple hypothesis, the theory we have pre- 
viously indicated concerning the constitution of the solar photo- 
sphere. 

"The constitution of the sun, as I have just established 

it, may equally well serve to explain how, on the surface of the 
orb, there exist some spots not black but luminous. These have 
been called faculse, others of much smaller dimensions and gene- 
rally round, have been called lucules By experiment it 

was found that a gaseous incandescent surface of a determined 
extent is more luminous when seen obliquely, than under perpen- 
dicular incidence. Consequently, if, like our atmosphere, when 
dappled with clouds, the solar surface presents undulations, the 
parts of these undulations which are presented perpendicularly 
to the observer, must appear comparatively dim, and the inclined 
portion must appear more brilliant; and hence, every conic cavity 
must appear a lucule. It is no longer necessary, in accounting 
for these appearances, to suppose that there exist on the sun mil- 
lions of fires more incandescent than the rest of the disc, or 
millions of points distinguishing themselves from the neighboring 
regions by a greater accumulation of luminous matter. 



B24 -::. :":::ical :,:: ; . 

After having proved that that the sun is composed of a dark 
central body, of a cloudy-reflecting atmosphere, and of a photo- 
sphere, we should naturally ask if there is nothing besides. If 
the photosphere terminates abruptly and without being surrounded 

f a, g Menus atmosphere, less luminous in itself, or feebly refract- 
ing ? Generally, this third atmosphere would disappear in the 
ocean of light with which the sun appears always surrounded, 
and which proceeds from the reflection of its own rays upon the 
particles of which the terrestrial atmosphere is composed." M. 

_ _ : hen proceeds to mention observations made in connection 
with eclipses of the moon, in regard to the existence of a third 
and older stratum of the solar investment, and arrives at the con- 
.: the actual presence of such a stratum is scarcely any 
more a matter of doubt. Sir J. Herschel, years previously, main- 
tained the existence of a gaseous atmosphere of vast height above 
the second or luminous stratum of the solar investment. — Aa :: 
the physical cause of the sun's heat, it may be remarked, how- 
:^at philosophers widely differ; as there are great diffi- 
the hypothesis of combustion, involving such extensive 
chemical change, many incline to the view that it is produced by 
electric or electro-magnetic action. — Tk.] 

§2. The Planck VaUOite*. 

Let us now turn our attention froni the kins 
Jay : :L: .rtendants of his majesty. Among the 
Plaxets, so far as they are known to us, li there 
obtains this common and universal character: that 
they, being in themselves more or less dark bodies, 
stand in need of the vivifying light of the sun ; that 
- move around their common central sphere, in 
orbits which mostly deviate but little from the form 
of a circle, and lie in a plane which very nearly co- 
incides with the plane of the sun's equator;" that 
.11 turn on their axes, and that through the 
inclined position of th - to the planes of the 

- of the several planets, there is produced a 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. 325 

change of seasons and a lengthening and shortening 
of day and night; and that, finally, "they are all 
composed of matter which appears not to vary very 
substantially from the material of which our earth 
is formed (ranging from the solidity of metal to the 
lightness of water)". But the variety of their indi- 
vidual conditions is by no means limited by this 
general similarity. " In spite of the unity of their 
plan, and an obvious striving towards the same 
grand idea, uniformity is still avoided. In each of 
these revolving globes, though they are but partially 
known to us, we meet with some peculiarities which 
belong respectively to the particular individual only. 
Nature has nowhere repeated herself. In every hea- 
venly body, both great and small, we behold an in- 
dividual independent in itself — between them all, 
however, there exists at the same time, a harmony 
that is simple, complete, and ever-abiding." 1 

The similarity as to the constitution and arrange- 
ments of nature, is most marked in Mercury, Venus, 
the Earth, and Mars, the four planets nearest the 
sun ; and the dissimilarity increases proportionally 
with the distance. 

Mercury is a body very similar to our earth, with 
a mountainous surface, and surrounded by an atmo- 
sphere. The length of its day is much the same as 
that of ours. Its year, however, contains but 87 
days, and is divided into seasons of very unequal 
length. Its diameter is but some 3000 miles, on 
which account the power of gravity upon its surface, 
in spite of a somewhat greater density (its proportion 

1 Madler, Astr. Briefe, p. 129. 

28 



326 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

to the earth being in this respect as 6 to 5), is very 
materially less than with us. Our pound there 
weighs but 7J ounces. From Mercury the sun ap- 
pears, at a distance of but 37,000,000 miles, as a disk 
two feet seven inches in diameter ; and the planet, 
consequently, receives seven times the amount of 
light and heat that our earth does. 

Venus, that brilliant star which was called by 
Homer of old, the most beautiful one in all the hea- 
vens, does not deviate very much from the earth, in 
respect to size, density, and power of gravitation. 
Its day's length is nearly the same as that of ours ; 
its year, however, about one-third shorter than ours. 
The self-illumination of its dark side is perhaps a 
manifestation analogous to our northern light, though 
it is far more intense. The planet contains moun- 
tains of considerable size, and is surrounded by a 
very pure and clear atmosphere. 1 

1 [From the careful observations of Schroter, as well as those of 
Beer and Madler, in regard to the rotation of Venus, it may now 
be considered as fully settled that this planet turns upon its axis 
in a period of about 23 hours 15 minutes. De Vico still more lately 
has arrived at results altogether in harmony with those of Beer and 
Madler. Schroter conjectures from indications he has observed, 
that the southern hemisphere of this planet is more mountainous 
than the northern. The direction of its axis of rotation has not 
been satisfactorily determined. "If, as it is generally supposed, 
it be inclined to the plane of the planet's orbit at an angel of 75°, 
the sun must at some time be vertical to all points not within 15° 
of the poles, and as the utmost limit at which the sun is vertical 
marks the tropics, the latter must be within 15° of the poles of 
the planet, or 75° on each side of the equator, and so include 150° 
of its surface. By this arrangement the sun is vertical twice a 
year to all places on the planet Venus, except those situated within 
15° of each pole, producing a most remarkable vicissitude of sea- 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. 327 

The distance of our Earth from the sun, amounts 
to about 95,000,000 miles. Its satellite, the Moon,* 
50 times less in size, and 80 times less in weight, is 
distant from it 240,000 miles. In spite of the inti- 
mate relation existing between the moon and the 
earth, their mutual physical conditions and arrange- 
ments aie very different and unlike. In this con- 
nection may be mentioned especially, the complete 
absence of water and of any atmosphere in the moon, 
the highly peculiar volcanic and kettle-shaped exca- 
vations of the surface, the coincidence of its axial 
rotation with its revolution round the earth, &c. 

The most remarkable agreement with the physical 
constitution and relations of the earth, may be ob- 
served in the next and smaller planet, Mars. 1 Its 

sons. During one-half of Venus' year — that is, sixteen weeks — 
the sun continues at one pole without setting, while the inhabit- 
ants of the other pole are involved in darkness. In this respect 
Venus resembles our earth, for each pole has a night of half a 
year. But unlike the earth, the inhabitants at Venus' equator 
have two winters and two summers in every year." — Familiar 
Astronomy, Bouvier, p. 353. — Tr.] 

1 [Mars revolves on its axis in 24 hours, 37 minutes and 10 
seconds, the direction of the axis being at an inclination of 28° 
27' to the plane of the planet's orbit. Beer and M'adler, who 
have devoted much time to observations in connection with this 
planet, suppose, in accordance with the author's remarks, that the 
whiteness observed at the poles of this planet is occasioned by 
snow and ice. To the same observers, changes in appearance were 
manifest in other parts of the planet, " but through those changes 
the permanent features of the planet were always discerned ; just 
as the seas and continents of the earth may be imagined to be 
distinguishable through the occasional openings in the clouds of 
our atmosphere, by a telescopic observer in Mars." — Tr.] 

a [For matter connected with letters, see additions to the sections.— Tk.] 



328 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

red color would lead us to conclude at least that its 
atmosphere is quite as dense as that of our earth. 
Both dark and light spots, which are not subject to 
change, may be observed upon its surface. " The 
first appear to be seas, and it may be worthy of re- 
mark that, just as it is upon the earth, the greater 
mass of the waters is collected upon the southern 
hemisphere ; while the northern contains a prepon- 
derance of dry land." Besides, the neighborhood of 
its two poles is rendered conspicuous by a specially 
brilliant white color. As these clear white zones 
yearly increase and decrease, in a regularly recurring 
manner, according as winter or summer is present 
at the pole concerned, we are left fairly to conclude 
that they are composed of snow and ice. The day's 
length in Mars is much the same as ours ; but on 
account of its greater distance from the sun, its time 
of revolution round that body is almost twice as long 
as that of the earth ; its light and heat are of course 
much less intense than with us. Though not vary- 
ing much in density from the earth, gravitation is but 
one-half as strong upon its surface. Mars, just as the 
two planets nearest the sun, has no satellite. 

With respect to the Asteroids, whose number has 
been so rapidly b swelled of late years, that it now 
amounts to 42, observation has gathered little of im- 
portance. The reason of this ill success is their dis- 
tance and their extreme smallness — the diameter of 
Yesta, for instance, is thought to be about 260 miles 
— and observation has been forced to confine itself 
pretty much to the investigation of their wonderfully 
intricate, deviating, and extremely elliptical orbits. 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. 329 

Jupiter is the largest of all the planets. 1 Its bulk 
is 1414 times that of the earth, and almost the one- 
thousandth part that of the sun. Its distance from 
the sun is about 495,500,000 miles; and, seen from 
it, the sun presents a disc of but 2J inches in dia- 
meter The degree of light received by this planet 
is 27 times less than that received by the earth. Its 
density is equal to that of the sun — 4 times less 
than that of the earth. But, on the other hand, the 
power of gravitation is much greater upon its surface 
than with us, a pound there weighing 2J pounds. 
From all this it appears how very much its physical 
constitution and relations differ from those which 
obtain upon our globe. Its light is at least twice as 
intense as it would be upon the earth, were the 



1 [The human mind is filled with wonder in contemplating the 
grand scale on which magnitude, motion and distance are displayed 
even in our own planetary heavens. Jupiter rotates upon his axis 
in 9 hours and 5C minutes, producing an astonishing rate of mo- 
tion at his equatorial surface, when we remember that over 1400 
such globes as the one we inhabit would be required to make a 
mass the size of this huge planet. But still more astonishing is 
his prodigious orbital motion as he sweeps round the sun at such 
an immense distance. He moves at a speed sixty times greater 
than that of a cannon-ball, or 700,000 miles per day, 30,000 per 
hour, and 500 per minute. Sir William Herschel considers it 
probable, from his observations, that an analogy to the axial rota- 
tion of our moon in relation to the planet it accompanies is to be 
found in the adjustment of the Jovian moons — that they rotate 
once upon their axes in the time of their respective revolutions 
about the planet, thus ever presenting the same side to that body. 
There are indications that this is a general law in regard to the 
satellites of the solar system. — Tr.] 
28* 



330 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

earth equally remote from the sun. It is surrounded 
by a very dense and high vapor or atmosphere. 
Parallel with the direction of its equator, broad 
stripes may be observed extending across its disc. 
These have been regarded as cloud-formations ; but 
they must differ very much from corresponding ap- 
pearances in our atmosphere, since that great girdle 
of clouds which passes across the disc of that planet 
near its equator, has experienced no material change 
in form and extent for the last 200 years, though the 
other stripes have suffered various modifications and 
divisions. On account of the diminished density of 
this planet, which at its surface is equal to but one- 
half that of our water, sedimentary deposits, seas, and 
such like, must, if they exist there at all, be of a 
wholly different and peculiar constitution. Jupiter 
has four satellites. 

The most interesting system, and the one most 
planetary in its character, is presented by Saturn, 
with its rotating ring/ and its eight satellites. Its 
mean distance from the sun is about 906,000,000 
miles, its year's length 28J of our years, the length 
of its day 10J hours. It surpasses the earth in size 
about 770 times, and its mean density is eight times 
less than that of the earth. Its outer crust, there- 
fore, does not probably possess a specific gravity 
quite equal to that of cork-wood. The light this 
planet receives from the sun would be, according to 
the usual calculation, 90 times less than that of the 
earth ; but it is, in reality, only some 20 times less, 
owing to a superior capacity in this body for receiv- 
ing light. These circumstances show, indeed, a 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. 331 

striking difference between the physical economy of 
Saturn and that of the earth ; but it becomes still 
more remarkable when we examine that strange and 
mysterious ring, which encircles and revolves around 
the equator of the planet, at a distance of about 
19,000 miles. The edge of this arching ring, with a 
thickness of not much over 135 miles, is turned to- 
wards the planet ; the ring is about 29,000 miles 
broad, and extends away from the sphere lying in 
its plane, and which it encircles, like a great disc 
with a piece taken out of its centre. The ring is 
besides not a simple one, but " consists of several 
concentric rings, of unequal breadth, completely de- 
tached from each other by intervening void spaces." 
Uranus is distant from the sun about 1822 mil- 
lions of miles. It revolves round that body in 84 
years ; the time of its rotation on its axis is still un- 
known. The light of the sun, which reaches our 
earth in 8' 7", does not reach this planet under 2 hrs. 
35' 42". From it the sun presents a disc of but f 
of an inch in diameter. Its bulk is about 82 times 
that of the earth ; its specific weight 6 times less than 
that of our globe. It is surrounded by a very dense 
atmosphere, which perhaps possesses sources of light 
and heat in itself, since the brilliancy of this planet 
is at least four times what it should be according to 
calculation. Its axis is so much inclined towards its 
orbit that the two fall almost in the same plane ; the 
length of its day and night is consequently almost 
wholly independent of the rotation of the planet 
itself. It has at its poles, in turn, both daylight and 
summer for a period of 42 terrestrial years ; these 



332 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

are then followed by a wintry night of equal length. 
Six satellites have been discovered holding their 
courses around this planet. 

Neptune, the most distant of known planets, in 
whose discovery mathematical analysis has won its 
highest and most brilliant triumph, describes its 
orbit around the sun in 164 } T ears, and is distant 
from that body about 3000 millions of miles. Its 
size is very nearly the same as that of Uranus. The 
rays of the sun are, when they reach that planet, 
1300 times less intense than when they strike on 
earth. Two satellites have been discovered in con- 
nection with Neptune. 

How diverse and unaccustomed may not the con- 
stitution of nature be at such a distance ! 

That there may still be planets unknown to us, 
existing without the orbit of Neptune, but neverthe- 
less controlled by our sun, cannot, particularly since 
the discovery of Neptune, be reasonably contested. 
A planet, though a hundred times more distant than 
Uranus, would at least have no occasion to appre- 
hend disturbance from the nearest of the fixed stars : 
( — the surpassing distance of these latter bodies will 
hereafter claim our closer attention). If we apply 
the analogy of increasing distance w T hich obtains 
all the w r ay from the sun to Neptune, to merely the 
most extreme limits of the known solar system (the 
aphelion of the comet of 1680), there will still be 
room for four undiscovered planets beyond the orbit 
of Neptune, the most distant of which must be 620 
times the distance of the earth from the sun (58,500 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. 833 

millions of miles), and require 15 thousand years to 
complete one revolution. 

a [" The entire surface of the visible hemisphere of the moon is 
thickly covered with mountainous masses and ranges of various 
forms, magnitudes and heights, in which, however, the prevalence 

of a circular or crater-like form is conspicuous Uniform 

patches, of greater or less extent, each having an uniform gray- 
tint more or less marked, formerly supposed to be large collec- 
tions of water, have now been proven to be regions diversified like 
the rest of the lunar surface, by inequalities and undulations of 
permanent forms. They differ from the other regions only in the 
magnitude of the mountain masses which prevail upon them. . . 
The more intensely white parts are mountains of various magni- 
tude and form, whose height, relatively to the moon's magnitude, 
greatly exceeds that of the most stupendous terrestrial eminences; 
and there are many characterized by an abruptness and steep- 
ness which sometimes assume the position of a vast vertical wall 
altogether without example upon the earth. . . . Circular ranges 
of mountains, which, were it not for their vast magnitude, might be 
inferred from their form to have been volcanic craters, are by far 
the most prevalent arrangement. These have been denominated, 
according to their magnitudes, bulwark plains, ring mountains, 
craters, and holes. Tycho, the most remarkable of the ring moun- 
tains, is distinguishable without a telescope when the lunar disc 
is full. . . . The area which it encloses, and which is very nearly 
circular, is 47 miles in diameter, and the inside of the enclosing 
ridges has the steepness of a wall. Its height above the level of 
the enclosed plain is 16,000, and above that of the external region, 
12,000 feet. There is a central mount, height 4700 feet, besides 
a few lesser hills within the enclosure. Craters and holes are the 
smallest formations of the circular class. Craters enclose a visible 
area, containing, generally, a central mound or peak, exhibiting, 
in a striking manner, the volcanic character. Holes include no 
visible area, but may possibly be craters on a scale too small to be 
distinguished by the telescope. Formations of this class are in- 
numerable on every part of the visible surface of the moon. . . . 
Among the most remarkable phenomena presented to lunar ob- 
servers, are the systems of streaks of light and shade, which 



334 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

radiate from the borders of some of the largest ring mountains, 
spreading to distances of several hundred miles around them. . . . 
Herschel, the elder, suggested for their explanation streams of 
lava ; Cassini imagined they might be clouds ; and others even 
suggested the possibility of their being roads ! M'adler imagines 
that these ring mountains may have been among the first seleno- 
logical formations ; and, consequently, the points to which all the 
gases evolved in the formation of our satellite would have been 
attracted. These emanations produced effects such as vitrifica- 
tion and oxydation, which modified the reflective powers of the 
surface." — Handbook of Astronomy, Lardner, p. 208, 209. " Dr. 
Scoresby, in an account he has given of some recent observations 
made with the Earl of Rosse's telescope, says : With respect to 
the moon, every object on its surface of one hundred feet was 
now distinctly to be seen, and he had no doubt, that, under favor- 
able circumstances, it would be so with objects sixty feet in height. 
On its surface were craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks, and masses 
of stones almost innumerable. He had no doubt that, if a build- 
ing, such as he was then in, were upon the surface of the moon, it 
would be rendered visible by these instruments. But there were 
no signs of inhabitants such as ours, no vestige of architectural 
remains, to show that the moon is, or ever was, inhabited by a 
race of mortals similar to ourselves. It presented no appearance 
which could lead to the supposition that it contained anything 
like the green fields and lovely verdure of this beautiful world of 
ours. There was no water visible, not a sea, or river, or even the 
measure of the reservoir for supplying town or factory ; all seemed 
desolate."— Tr.] 

f " [Well may the author speak of the rapid increase of the number 
of the asteroids I W^hen he penned those lines, some five years 
ago, they numbered 18, so far as they were known ; now they 
number 42, and there is no reason to suppose that the unwearied 
eye of the astronomer may not succeed in descrying many similar 
small masses, moving across the heavens in the general path of 
planetary motion. Early in the present century, when only three 
of these bodies had been discovered, the sagacious Dr. Olbers 
ventured the conjecture that they all had a common origin ; being, 
as he supposed, the fragments of a large planet revolving between 
Mars and Jupiter, which was rent asunder by some tremendous 



THE PLANETS AND SATELLITES. o3D 

catastrophe in the unknown past. Many astronomers have sub- 
sequently sympathized with this view. Le Verrier supposes the 
sum of all the asteroids cannot exceed one-fourth of the hulk of 
the earth ; but, granting the hypothetical planet to have been of 
that size, a vast number of additional fragments may still be 
coursing their way unseen in the region of the broken world, as 
it would require 400 bodies, equal in size to the largest of the 
asteroids, to make up one-fourth of the earth's bulk. 

Within a few years, an interesting paper has been produced by 
an astronomer of our own country, Prof. Alexander, of Princeton, 
in regard to the size, form, rotation, distance, etc., of the'original 
asteroid planet, some of the views of which we here present, as 
contained in the Annual of Scientific Discovery, 185G. 

11 By a skilful use of evidence, Prof. Alexander has arrived at 
almost a certainty that, in the space between Mars and Jupiter, 
once revolved a planet a little more than 2*8 times as far from the 
sun as our earth. The equatorial diameter was about 70,000 
miles, but the polar diameter only 8 miles ! It was not a globe, 
but a wafer, nay, a disc of a thickness of only g^ojjth of its dia- 
meter. Its time of revolution was 3*098 days, say 3 days, 15 
hours, 45 minutes. The inclination of its orbit to the ecliptic was 
about 4°. It met a fate that might have been anticipated from so 
thin a body whirling so furiously, for its motion on its axis was y^th 
of its velocity in its orbit, say 2477 miles per hour. It burst as 
grind-stones and fly-wheels sometimes do. We have found 42 of 
its fragments, and call them asteroids. When it burst, some parts 
were moving 2477 miles per hour faster than the centre did, and 
some as much slower ; that is, some parts moved 4954 miles per 
hour faster than the others. These described a much larger orbit 
than the planet did, and the place where it burst was their peri- 
helion. Others described a smaller orbit, because they left that 
point with a diminished velocity — it was their aphelion. Some 
flew above the orbit of the planet and had their ascending node. 
Others flew below, and it was their descending node. They seemed 
to go almost in pairs. Two went very far out of the plane of the 
orbit, so that they pass the limits of the zodiac, and it is found 
that the ascending node of 18 corresponds nearly with the descend- 
ing node of 17. Thin as the planet was, it had not cooled so much 
at the time of the explosion but that some of the fragments could 



336 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

assume a spherical form. Three or four independent processes 
for finding the place of the planet agreed in their results surpris- 
ingly. He interpolated it as a lost term in a geometric series, 
from Mars to Saturn, for the first approximation. He compared 
it with Saturn and Jupiter, and with Mars and Jupiter. He 
found where a planet would be dropped off in the successive cool- 
ing and contracting of the solar system. And he compared its 
orbit for size and ellipticity with those of the asteroids, etc. . . . 
It is curious to see how the history of this planet verifies the 
theory of La Place, that a heavenly body must be either nearly a 
sphere, or a disc, and that the latter must be unstable." — Tr.] 

c [Recent observation has made it certain that another and a 
partially transparent ring exists within the space circumscribed 
by the ring or rings of Saturn heretofore known to exist. This 
ring was, as it would appear, discovered almost simultaneously 
by Prof. Bond, of Boston, and Mr. Dawes, of England. Dr. Galle, 
of Berlin, had years previously noticed some indications which 
are now supposed to have been connected with this ring, but their 
true import was not then understood. 

"By observations made by Mr. Lassell, of Malta, it appears 
that the new ring is transparent to such a degree that the body 
of the planet can be seen through it. The following is the lan- 
guage of Lassell : Perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon, 
which I now notice for the first time, is the evident transparency 
of the obscure ring ; both limbs of the planet being distinctly 
seen through it where it crosses the ball, quite through to the 
inner edge of the inner bright ring. To my apprehension, I can- 
not better describe the entire aspect of the obscure ring than by 
comparing it to an annulus of black crape stretched within the 
bright ring, which, when projected against the black sky, as at 
the curve, would, from its reflecting some light, appear of a dark- 
grey shade ; and when projected on the ball, would, from the 
transmission of a portion of the reflected light of the ball, appear 
of a much lighter grey. What the precise nature of this marvel- 
ous appendage can be, would be an interesting subject of specu- 
lation, exhibiting, as it were, a connecting link between nebulous 
and solid matter. 

" Mr. J. P. Bond maintains that Saturn's ring is in a fluid state, 
or at least does not strongly cohere." He is led to this conclu- 



THE SHOOTING-STARS. 337 

sion from the changes observed in the rings, from the difficulties in 
apposing numerous small solid concentric rings near each other, 
and the > ike. Peculiar circumstances may require the separation of 
either the inner or outer portion of the ring as commonly seen 
giving rise to the subdivisions sometimes seen. This separation 
may be necessary for the preservation of the equilibrium of the 
ring or the parts of which it is composed. 

-Prof. Peirce has undertaken to show, from purely mechanical 
considerations, that Saturn's ring cannot be solid. He maintains 
unconditionally that there is no conceivable form of irregularity 
and no combination of irregularities consistent with an actual 
ring, which would serve to retain it permanently about the pri- 
mary, lf lt W e r e solid. He maintains that Laplace's statement 
of the sustaining power of an irregularity, was a careless sugges- 
tion, which was dropped at random, and never subjected to the 
scrutiny of a rigid analogy. Moreover, the fluid ring cannot be 
regarded as one of real permanence without the aid of foreign 
support This support he finds in the action of the satellites. 
Ihe satellites are constantly disturbing the ring, and yet they 
sustain it in the very act of perturbation.-^^ Progress of 
Astronomy, Loomis, p. 116 seq.— Tr.] 

§ 3. Shooting -Stars. 
There Lave been added by more recent investiga- 
tion, to the planets proper — the dignitaries, as it 
were, m the widely extended realm of the sun — a 
countless number of smaller planetary masses, which 
encircle his majesty in thickly crowded millions. 
Their presence is betrayed alone by the fact that 
they meet the earth in their mysterious career, and 
then, at the boundaries of our atmosphere, assume a 
glowing brightness, through some process not yet 
understood — perhaps an electric one — and finally, 
overcome in many cases by the attraction of the 
earth, lose their independence and fall to its surface, 
lhese are the so-called Shooting-Stars, together with 
29 



338 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

fire-balls and meteoric stones (aerolites), which all with 
scarcely a doubt belong to the same category. 1 

The height of the shooting-stars — the point at which 
they commence or cease to be visible — varies from 
18 to 160 miles. The relative velocity of their move- 
ment is from 18 to 40 miles in a second — much the 
same as that of the planets nearest the earth (Mer- 
cury 28 miles in a second, the Earth 19), though 
somewhat greater. "They fall either singly and 
not very frequently — sporadically — or in numbers 
amounting to thousands. The latter cases (Arabian 
writers compare them to swarms of locusts) are 
periodic." The most noted of these periodic occur- 
rences is the so-called Xovember phenomenon (from 
the 12th to the 14th of Nov.), as also the stream of 
St. Laurentius ^from the 9th to the 14th of August). 
The latter is so called, because of its taking place 
during the festival of this saint (Aug. 10th), whose 
" fiery tears" were long since represented in old 
church-calendars of England, as regularly recurriDg 
phenomena. 

Alex, von Humboldt first called attention to the 
periodicity of these phenomena. He was led to 
remark it particularly, from the unparalleled pheno- 
menon of shooting-stars which was observed in 
Xorth America, on the 12th and 13th of Xov. 1833. 
On that occasion they fell from one region of the 
heavens, thick as snow-flakes — at least 240,000 were 
seen in some places in the course of an hour. 

The final result of Humholdfs inquiries, to which 

1 Compare, particularly, Humboldt's Cosmos, and M'adler's 
Astr, Brirfe, p. 335-343. " 



THE COMETS. 339 

most scientific minds assent, is this : " The different 
meteoric streams, each one of which consists of my- 
riads of small cosmical bodies, probably cnt the orbit 
of the earth. TV T e may imagine them as forming a 
closed ring, and pursuing the same common orbit." 
Meteoric stones are, indeed, composed of elements 
such as are to be met with upon the earth (particu- 
larly pyrites, magnetic ore, iron and nickel) ; " but 
scarcely ever in such combinations as obtain in 
bodies belonging to our globe." 

§ 4. The Comets. 

Before leaving the realm of the sun, we must cast 
a glance at another class of his vassals — the Comets. 
They at times approach in their sweeping career 
much closer to this mighty sovereign sphere than is 
ever dared by any of the planets ; and then pass off 
in their extremely elliptical orbits, to the very outer 
limits of the solar system, absenting themselves for 
centuries, and even for thousands of years. The 
province of the solar system, of which Uranus was 
still the outer planetary sentinel, so far as knowledge 
until recently extended, had been enlarged at least 
forty times through the far-distant adventures of 
these erratic bodies — enlarged truly, but to a vast 
"terra incognita." In spite of the roving nature of 
these bodies, they still obey, as do all the worlds of 
the universe, the great laws of cosmical movement 
discovered by Kepler. Thus, the comet of 1860, 
which ventures 44 times further away from the sun 
than the extremely remote Uranus, and completes 
one revolution only in 9000 years, moves at the rate 



340 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

of 248 miles in a second, or with thirteen times the 
velocity of the earth, when at its perihelion (only 
144,000 miles from the sun's surface) ; but when at 
its aphelion, scarcely 10 feet in a second. But it 
must be confessed such extremes of motion are not 
to be found in the case of any other comet. 

The physical constitution of the comets differs 
very widely from that of the planets. "It would 
indeed be carrying the matter too far, to deny them all 
materiality, and, consequently, all substantial reality ; 
but still, observation has taught us that our accus- 
tomed ideas of physical bodies, appear to entirely 
fail of application to them. In spite of a diameter 
of many thousands, yea, of hundreds of thousands 
of miles, they are quite transparent, and possess no 
power of refracting light. Our air when most rare- 
fied would not be so completely impassive and devoid 
of power to produce effects. The nuclei of these 
bodies even, are probably much rarer than common 
air, so that our conceptions of heavenly bodies as 
solid masses, lose all application in this connection. 
This idea is favored by the fact that they experience 
very sudden and momentous changes in their aspects, 
which certainly proves a remarkable volatilization 
and mobility of their parts. The end they fulfil in 
the great plan of the universe is in all probability 
beyond the power of our minds to discover." 

" That comets are not solid bodies appears from 
the fact that they experience such great and sudden 
changes. Neither can they partake of a fluid or 
gaseous form, for in either case the rays of light 
would then be refracted. But what, then, are these 



THE COMETS. 341 

bodies? We can but confess our ignorance, and say 
that as the earth furnishes us with nothing analo- 
gous, it is altogether impossible to profess any de- 
finite knowledge on this point. Perhaps they are 
composed of extremely minute, diffused, dust-like 
particles." 1 

It has been satisfactorily determined by actual ex- 
periment, that the light of comets is not an inherent 
light, but that it is derived from the sun. — The 
orbits of these strange wanderers lie in all directions 
about the sun — they pass from east to west, as well 
as from west to east. The number of the comets 
has never been determined. Although but some 
500 of them have been closely observed, doubtless 
many thousands may still be speeding their ways 
through the remote regions of the solar system, 
entirely withdrawn from all human observation for 
the time. 



[The great comet of 1843 presents one of the most remarkable 
of these phenomena on record, and may serve to give the mind 
some idea of the wonders connected with the life and experience 
of a comet. It approached the sun so closely as to become red 
hot (according to Loomis), and retained a peculiar fiery appear- 
ance for some days after its perihelion. It absolutely almost 
grazed the sun, and whirled around it at such a prodigious rate, 
that in two hours it swept over more than 1,000,000 miles of solar 
surface. Sir John Herschel computed the heat it must have re- 
ceived from the sun, at its perihelion, at 47,000 times that we 
received from that great luminary ; a heat sufficient to convert 
almost any substance upon earth into vapor, or at least intensely 
ignite it. The comet was visible for 40 days : the nebulosity of 

1 Madler, Astr. Briefe, p. 290. 
29* 



342 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

its head was about 36,000 miles in diameter, and the length of its 
tail, when most fully developed, 108,000,000 of miles ! 

" The following circumstances invest the comet of 1843 with 
peculiar interest : 1st, Its small perihelion distance ; being as 
small as that of any comet whose orbit has been computed, and 
nearly as small as is physically possible. 2d, The length of its 
tail ; being equal to that of any comet hitherto observed." — Loomis, 
Recent Progress of Astronomy, p. 131. 

Beila's comet, discovered in 1826, and having a period of over 
6J years, was seen on its return in 1846, to be divided into two 
parts, constituting, as it were, two comets sweeping along side by 
side. This strange phenomenon greatly attracted the attention of 
astronomers. A subsequent appearance in 1852 has shown that 
the body is permanently divided. The two nuclei, when last seen, 
were more than 1J millions of miles distant from each other — much 
further than in 1846. It is supposed the comet may, perhaps, 
have been divided by a repulsive force emanating from the sun. 

That comets are composed of ponderable matter, however light 
and diffused it may be, is proved by the circumstance that they 
are affected in their movements by the attraction of the planets. 
It at the same time becomes evident that the density of these 
bodies is incalculably small, since no slightest effect of theirs can 
be detected on the planets. — Tr.] 

§ 5. Origin and Stability of the Solar System. 

vYe might at the close of this glance at the con- 
stitution of the solar system, inquire whether As- 
tronomy is capable of furnishing us with any results, 
bearing the stamp of reliability or of probability, 
as to the origin of this system. But it is at once 
perceived that to give such information is not 
the mission of that science, nor is it competent to 
the task of supplying it. Astronomical speculation 
may, indeed, as we readily admit, with a full acknow- 
ledgment of its rights, advance more or less plau 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 343 

sible theories founded upon the condition of the 
actual present, to explain how it originated 1 from a 
hypothetical past. But all its claims to vouch for 
the correctness and reliability of these theories, are 
in all cases and under all circumstances equally futile 
and unwarrantable. 

1 The most plausible hypothesis, and the one best accounting 
for the facts in the case, in regard to the origin of the solar sys- 
tem, is that one brought forward by the celebrated mathematician, 
Laplace, in his Exposition du Systeme du Monde (compare Mad- 
ler, Astr. Brief e, p. 335 seq.). Laplace assumes that our system 
originated from an inconceivably rare and immensely extended 
mass of matter without definite form and possessed of a rotary 
movement. The gradual cooling of this mass caused a contrac- 
tion or diminution of its volume, which must have produced, 
according to the law of Kepler, an acceleration of its rotary mo- 
tion. Hence it would gradually become more and more flattened 
at the poles, assuming a somewhat lenticular form as its matter 
gathered towards the equator. The more the latter tendency 
exhibited itself, and the rotary motion increased from a diminu- 
tion of the volume as the process of cooling progressed, so much 
the more must there have been developed a tendency of the parts 
about the equator to separate from the general mass, as the cen- 
trifugal force would be constantly on the increase. A separation at 
length actually took place, as soon as the centrifugal force was 
sufficiently developed. In the simplest case, a circular zone must 
have been separated from the circumference of the mass, which 
would continue to rotate as a ring, and in which the process of 
contraction would still go on. Were this ring of equal density in 
all its parts, it might retain the annular form, but so soon as a 
dynamic preponderance exhibited itself in any one point, it must 
begin to gather itself together into a globular mass. "Were there 
several, or more than one, such points of preponderance, the ring 
must break, and its several parts assume the globular form. Thus 
the planets were produced : the outer first. But contraction and 
rotation, with all their consequences, would still continue in the 
separated masses, and produce at length, from the substance of 



344 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

Connected with the question as to the origin of 
the solar system is another concerning the stability 
and duration of the present order of that system. 
Here science may speak more decisively. Supported 

these rapidly-whirling spheres, new rings, for the formation of 
secondary bodies. In the case of the earth, the ring cast off was 
collected into a single sphere — the moon: in the cases of Jupiter, 
Saturn, and Uranus, it was respectively broken into a certain 
number of fragments, constituting their satellites; whilst in the 
case of Saturn, it happened that one of the rings retained its ori- 
ginal form. The inner planetary masses being last cast off from 
the great central sphere, when its density was greatly enhanced, 
did not admit of the production of secondary bodies under the 
circumstances of their rotation. By far the greater part of the 
original mass remained undivided, constituting the huge body of 
the sun. — Most of the phenomena within our solar system are 
explained by this hypothesis in a satisfactory manner. But it 
does not account for them all, and there are some contradictory 
facts: for instance, the body of the sun is not as dense, to say 
nothing of being denser, than his nearest planet — his density 
equals only that of Jupiter, one of the most distant of the planet- 
ary masses. Laplace did not make any account of the comets, 
or attempt to explain them. Mddler supplies this defect as fol- 
lows: All parts of the original mass were not capable of so great 
condensation, and hence, as soon as the planetary masses permit- 
ted this, these refractory portions separated themselves in their 
original state ; and as such separation took place not only in the 
equatorial but in all regions of the great mass, we can easily ac- 
count for the inclinations and eccentricities observable in the 
orbits of the comets. Schubert's Anschauung von der Bildung 
unseres Sonnensysiems nacli seinem gegenwdrtigen Bestande, comp. 
chap. G, $ G obs. 5. 

[We may in this connection note the bold and ingenious appli- 
cation of the nebular hypothesis, to some of the vast forms in the 
heavens, by our own countryman, Prof. S. Alexander, and on a 
scale so grand that any ideas of world-production we may gather 
from the application of the principle involved to a mass of matter 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 345 

by the experience and observation of thousands of 
years, it may boldly maintain that in spite of all 
antagonistic forces which are at work, in spite of a 
wonderfully involved whirl of movements, yea, in 
spite of all perturbations and disturbances which 
may here and there occur (themselves controlled by 
unchangeable laws), the present order of our solar 
system bears the character of a stability the most 
unshaken and abiding. Ever since all fear that the 
world might be destroyed by coming in contact with 
some roving comet has been got rid of, through a 
knowledge of the light physical properties of these 
bodies, no agency or discoverable accident within 
the whole compass of our system has been known 
to Astronomy, by which the order of this system 
might be destroyed or even materially changed. 

equal to that comprehended by our solar system, can scarcely 
serve as stepping-stones to an adequate conception of what must 
have taken place in the production of the thickly-strewn worlds 
of the fixed stars. 

Prof. Alexander says : " The material of which some of the 
clusters and resolvable nebulae were formed, may have been — 1st. 
A fluid spheroid of great ellipticity, the gradual cooling of which 
might increase its velocity, and produce a rupture and dispersion 
which would respectively give rise to the present forms of the 
spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse. The Milky Way may 
have this form. 

"2d. A ring may have been the primary form, or a spheroid 
may have been transformed into a ring, the subsequent rupture 
of which might give rise to other recognized forms. 

'• 3d. The simultaneous rupture of a ring might give rise to the 
annular nebula in Lyra and others. 

"4th. The simultaneous rupture of a spheroid might give rise 
to the ' Dumb-bell' nebula and others. 

" 5th. Globular nebulae also show traces of similar action." — Tr.] 



346 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

§ 6. Parallaxes of the Fixed Stars. 

But it is time for us to mount up into higher 
spheres. Leaving Xeptune and the comets, we 
hasten towards Sirius, burning in the depths of 
space, surrounded by his countless thousands of bro- 
ther stars, who all, as friendly messengers of higher 
and holier regions, greet us with their sparkling, 
glowing light. Urging our way deeper into the 
vault of heaven, we behold through the telescope 
the milky-way, which to the naked eye appears as a 
faint zone of whitish lustre, resolved into millions 
of worlds, radiant as those we have left behind ; yea, 
piercing still further into the unfathomable depths 
before us, our wondering eyes rest on thousands of 
nebulous clouds, floating at a distance such as mocks 
the scrutinizing glance of the best instruments of 
our day. 

Vision and thought, indeed, can travel over this 
immeasurable distance in an inconceivably short 
space of time ; bat the brain which begets the 
thought, and the eye which casts the glance, cannot 
follow their swift-footed offspring, nor measure the 
distance gone over according to any ordinary rules 
of measurement. " To learn the distance of a single 
star," said a recent astronomer, 1 "is the abiding 
hope, the most ardent desire of the astronomer. 
There are some things to be despaired of in every 
sphere of knowledge. Astronomy is not a privileged 
science — it too must sometimes despair." 

The calculation of the parallaxes of the fixed 

1 Pfaff, der Mensch and die Erde, Niirnburg, 1834, p. 41. 



PARALLAXES OF THE FIXED STARS. 347 

stars 1 had heretofore been so irregular and arbitrary, 
that all hope of ever arriving at any sure information 
on this point seemed about to depart, when the 
observations of Struve and Bessel (in the year 1836) 
brought about results so reliable and happy be- 
yond all expectation. These two noted astrono- 
mers succeeded in solving this great problem, by a 
most careful observation of optically doubted stars 
(i. e. stars which to the eye appear very close to each 
other, but which in reality are not related, but 
separated by immeasurable distances). The princi- 
ple upon which they proceeded was this : stars which 
appear when first observed to be in an almost perfect 
range, must after the lapse of six months' time, when 
the earth has arrived at a point some 200 millions 
of miles distant from the place of first observation, 
appear somewhat altered in their relative positions. 
The parallaxes of the nearest fixed stars, it was soon 
discovered, might be determined by the application 
of this principle. Struve chose for observation the bril- 
liant star a, or Vega, in the Lyre, near which, at the 
distance of 43 seconds, lies a faint star of the eleventh 

1 By the parallaxes of the fixed stars is understood the apparent 
displacement of those bodies, arising from their being viewed 
from different or opposite points in the orbit of the earth, or, what 
is the same thing, the apparent magnitude or diameter of the 
orbit of the earth as viewed from the fixed stars respectively. The 
diameter of the earth's orbit being about 200 millions of miles, 
the points from which a star is viewed at times separated by an 
interval of six months, must consequently be distant from each 
other also 200 millions of miles. If any displacement capable of 
measurement is detected in the position of a star when viewed 
from points so widely separated, it is said to have a sensible 
parallax. 



348 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

magnitude. As the former was from its brightness 
regarded as one of the nearest stars, and both might 
safely be considered devoid of all connection or 
mutual dependence of movement, they seemed 
specially fitted for his object. As the result of ninety- 
six observations, this astronomer obtained a parallax 
of 0"*2613 for the star Yega. According to this 
parallax the latter star must lie at the distance of 
789,400 times the semi-diameter of the earth's orbit, 
or about 75 billions of miles, a distance through 
which light could not travel in less than 12 years and 
one month. — Bessel, on the other hand, examined the 
star 61 of the Swan, which indeed is of much less 
brilliancy than Vega, but which on account of its 
peculiarly large proper motion — the most consider- 
able known — excited a more reasonable supposition 
that it must be one of the nearest of the fixed stars. 
He compared this star with two faint ones at the 
respective lateral distances of 460" and 705", and 
obtained as the result of 402 careful observations, a 
parallax of // -3483, which would make the distance 
of the star to which it belongs 592,200 times that of 
the sun, or about 56 billions of miles, requiring 9J 
years for the passage of light. The parallax of the 
Polar Star was found by Peters (who subsequently 
made 33 other measurements of a similar nature) to 
be 0"-067. These results he obtained from very 
numerous and close observations. According to his 
conclusions the Polar Star must be distant from us 
three million times the distance from the earth to the 
sun. Its light cannot reach us in less than 43 years. 
Further, Maclear and Henderson having quite re- 



PARALLAXES OF THE FIXED STARS. 349 

cently, at the Cape of Good Hope, examined several 
southern stars with reference to their parallaxes, 
found one of them, a of the Centaur, to have a paral- 
lax of //# 9213. This result was obtained from 
several hundred observations. According to it, this 
star, a Centauri, which is one of the brightest in the 
heavens, possessing also a very large proper motion, 
and being encircled by the orbit of a star of the 
fourth magnitude, must be the nearest to our earth of 
all the fixed stars: — distant 223,000 times as far as 
the sun, or about 20 billions of miles, and requiring 
three years and a half for its light to reach our earth. 
Rilmher fixed the parallax of Arcturus at //# 34. 
Hence, nine and a half years would be required for 
its light to pass to our planet. 

Thus we see that the distances of several of the 
nearest stars have been determined with reasonable 
accuracy. As respects those lying in the more 
remote regions of space, we shall perhaps for ever 
be left in doubt, or to calculations which can never 
rise beyond probable correctness. Of the latter kind 
we may mention the calculations of the astronomer 
3£cidler, who computes that it would require 2934 
years for light to pass from the nearest point in the 
milky-way to our earth, and from its most distant 
point 3836 years. 



[The parallaxes of some five additional stars seem now to have 
been determined. 

Henderson ascribes to Sirius a parallax of O'^SO, with a dis- 
tance of 896,780 times the radius of the earth's orbit, requiring 
over 14 years for the passage of light. Peters finds, for the star 
1830 of Goombridge's Catalogue, a parallax of // ,148 ; hence, a 
30 



350 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

distance Tvhich light would not traverse in less than aboirt 22 
years He also finds a parallax of 0""046 for Capella, placing 
that star at 4,484,000 times the distance of the sun, 73 years being 
required for its light to reach our eyes. M. 0. Stnwe announces 
that he has recently found the parallax of a Cassiope* to be 
0-34, and the parallax of a Aurigae to be 0"-3Q. He also thinks 
the parallax ascribed by M. Struve to Vega to be too large, his 
results giving a parallax of 0-15 for that star. M. Peters has 
attempted to determine the absolute distances of the stars of vari- 
ous magnitudes, and arrives at the result that the time required 
for the passage of light from these bodies to us, ranges from 15 to 
120 years, on the average, for stars from the first to the sixth 
magnitude. — Tr.] 

§ 7. Solar Nature of the Fixed Stars. 

The sceptre of the sun, so potent within the solar 
system, does not extend to the regions of the fixed 
stars. Unaffected by the influence of the mighty 
king of day, which to so amazing a distance enchains 
all things to himself, these worlds pursue their silent, 
majestic courses adown the ages— light or heat from 
the sun they ask not. They scorn to be regarded as 
vassals, and claim a position as brother stars to the 
sun, sprung from the same source of light, and led 
by the same almighty hand in a circling dance 
through the immensity of space, to the praise of 
Him by whom they were created. 

Suns they certainly are— those brilliant points in 
the firmament, which still remain but points when 
viewed through the best instruments— if an inherent 
power of giving light be the ensign of their high 
position, the distinguishing characteristic of a sun. 
For the fact that their light is inherent, and not 
borrowed as in the case of the planets, is indicated 



SOLAR NATURE OF THE FIXED STARS. 351 

by the circumstance of their extreme remoteness, as 
well as the intensity of their light while they present 
to the eye a mere point instead of an appreciable 
diameter. We have, however, a direct means of 
setting this question to rest. The light of the fixed 
stars, just as the light of the sun, presents no marks 
of polarization ; while reflected light everywhere 
reveals itself as such by the fact of its polarization. 
That the proper light of the fixed stars is in general 
of essentially the same nature, follows the same laws 
of dispersion, and is possessed of the same velochVy, 
notwithstanding the various colors it assumes, is 
taught by observation, for the constant of abberation 
is the same in the cases of all the fixed stars." 1 

Again, the multiplicity of colors exhibited by these 
brilliant points in the vault of heaven, is very 
remarkable. The double stars particularly, but 
many also of the single stars, display to our admira- 
tion, colors bright and variegated, accompanied with 
the most profuse and delicate shadings. Here glows 
a star with a red or ruddy light, there sparkles an- 
other with a blue or greenish tint, while others cast 
a more or less intense ray of yellow, or reveal them- 
selves in purest white. 

The intensity of light with which the fixed stars 
shine, is, also, strikingly different in the different 
stars. It is conditioned both by the magnitude and 
distance of these bodies, as well as the amount of 
light developed upon them. The strength of their 
ray is capable of measurement, and the distance of 
at least some of the nearest stars has been deter- 

1 Madler, pop. Astr., p. 391. 



352 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

mined. From these data may be found the real 
light-giving power of any star in comparison with 
our sun. But it still remains undetermined in this 
calculation, how much of this light is to be referred 
to the greater or lesser intensity of the star's light on 
the one hand, or to the greater or lesser magnitude 
of the star on the other ; for astronomy has never 
yet passed the means of arriving at the magnitude 
of a single fixed star. 

" The light of Sirius is, according to the closest 
measurements, 20,000 million times weaker than the 
light of our sun. Hence we may learn from calcu- 
lation, that were the sun removed from us 141,400 
times the distance it now is, it would appear to us as 
a star of only the brightness and apparent magnitude 
of Sirius. But those fixed stars which present to us 
any appreciable parallax, and must for this reason 
be considered those nearest our system, are removed 
from us from 200,000 to 800,000 times the distance 
of our sun. But Sirius is not to be classed among 
the nearest of the stars, and no well-founded objection 
can be made to the assertion of the great English 
philosopher ( Wollaston), that Sirius shines with such 
a brilliancy as would scarcely be produced by 14 
suns like ours (or a luminous body 14 times the size 
of our sun) at such a distance. The star Vega, in 
the constellation of the Lyre, is, in all probability, 
much nearer us than Sirius, yet the strength of its 
light is only one-ninth that of the dog-star. The 
-star 61 Cygni belongs, as shown by its parallax, to 
the nearest of the stars, yet its light is still much 
weaker." (Schubert, Naturlehre, p. 78). 



THE MILKY- WAY. 353 

Thus, then, the fixed stars are suns like our sun, 
shining from their own unborrowed light, and some 
of them far surpassing it in brilliancy, be this on 
account of a vast excess in size, or from a greater 
clearness and intensity of light. 

However unhesitatingly we may from this point 
of view accord to the fixed stars the name of suns, 
the application of the term is of doubtful propriety, 
as we may here take occasion to remark somewhat 
in anticipation, if we look upon the position and 
physical constitution of the sun in other respects, 
its dark planetary body, and its relation to planets, 
moons and comets, as essential characteristics of a hea- 
venly body that would be called a sun : for in these re- 
spects the analogy cannot at all be established, and in- 
deed there is much, as we shall see hereafter, in 
direct conflict with such a view in connection with 
most of the fixed stars. 

§ 8. The Milky Way. 

The unaided eye, when cast aloft at night, beholds 
a whitish glimmer or band of light traversing the 
whole vault of heaven, or encircling it like a girdle. 
What was matter of conjecture from the earliest 
times — that this band of light was composed of the 
united rays of countless distant stars, incapable of 
being separately distinguished on account of their 
extreme remoteness — was proven by Herschel's tele- 
scope to be an indubitable fact. 

"W. Herschel regarded the Milky "Way and the 
visible stars as all belonging to one vast system, " but 
he did not in accordance with former assumptions 
30* 



354 AST R 0X0 MIC AL FACTS. 

ascribe to this system a spherical form. He imagined 
the system to be projected in space in the form of a 
flat, lenticular plane, near the midst of which our 
solar system was situated, the whole presenting in 
general the form of one vast circle or plane of stars. 
Subsequently, however, he assumed the view that 
the stars constituted a vast ring. The most recent 
investigations have established this view, but with 
this modification, that the Milky TY~ay consists not 
of one, but a system of several or at least two con- 
centric rings of stars, encompassing all the single 
visible stars. 

The Milky TVay does not strictly form one vast 
circle through the midst of the vault of the heavens, 
but divides it into two unequal parts, the superficies 
of which are to each other as 8 to 9. Besides, it is 
separated through § of its course into two arms, 
which again merge into each other. These two facts 
find their explanation in the discovery that the Milky 
Way consists of two concentric rings, and that the 
position of our sun is excentric in the concourse of 
stars encircled by these rings. For if we held a 
central position with respect to these rings, the Milky 
Way would divide the vault of heaven into two equal 
halves, and the inner ring would so completely cover 
the outer, that no longitudinal division could be 
perceived in the whole course of the Milky Tray. 
Our solar system does not therefore lie in the plane 
of the Milts' Way, but outside of it, in that part of 
the heavens divided by the latter which appears 
largest to the eve (i. e., in the direction of the autum- 
nal equinoctial point). But we mast conclude from 



THE MILKY- WAY. 355 

the fact that the Milky "Way appears to us through- 
out | of its course as a simple band of light, while 
it is divided for the other | of its length into two 
arms, that our position in space is considerably 
nearer to that part of the Milky Way where the two 
rings appear separated, than to the opposite region, 
where the outer ring is completely covered by the 
inner. " The middle of the divided portion of the 
Milky Way lies in the Scorpion, and we must con- 
sequently look for the nearest point in the former in 
the direction of the same constellation." 

But there are inequalities and irregularities ob- 
served in these two rings which cannot be explained 
as optical illusions. "At some points they are 
broader than at others, have an increased brilliancy, 
and are subject to irregular bends, divisions, &c." 
The bridge-like arms which pass between and con- 
nect the rings in several places are worthy of special 
remark. 

Whether there still exist beyond these rings, other 
vast belts of stars, enclosing the fixed stars of our 
system, cannot be satisfactorily determined. " The 
position of our sun is such," according to the view 
of Madler (page 417), " that perspectively no other 
than the division above mentioned is possible." 
That still further astral rings do really exist, is by 
no means impossible. At least, the fact that the 
most powerful instruments still reveal faint clouds 
of light incapable of being resolved into stars, per- 
haps from their extreme remoteness alone, would 
seem to favor this view. "But even assuming that 
another series of rings concentrically arranged, w T ere 



356 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

concealed by the outer of the two rings known to 
us, we cannot certainly regard the series as without 
end. For, as has been shown by Oilers, were the 
plane of these stellar rings extended without bound, 
it would be discovered by the naked eye, in the 
form of a bright line in the centre of the Milky 
~V\ 7 ay, and traversing it longitudinally. And this is 
so, just as in general it is true, according to the well- 
grounded remark of different astronomers, that were 
the starry heavens everywhere extended to infinity, 
every point in the nocturnal heavens would shine 
with the light of the sun and the brightness of day, 
so that there would really be no longer any distinc- 
tion to the eye between night and day." (Schubert, 
Weltgeb, p. 24). It has been repeatedly affirmed by 
the younger Herschel, that in many points of the 
Milky Way the cloud-like, glimmering light can be 
so completely resolved, that we behold the dark 
back-ground of the deep, starless heavens, lying 
beyond. (Compare Humboldt, Komi. HI. 188, 213). 
It is not improbable that the concourse of stars, 
also, within the rings which compose the Milky Way, 
is made up of layers of stars, having an annular dis- 
position in a common plane, and separated by star- 
less spaces traversed here and there by arms uniting 
the various rings. But the difficulty of determining' 
the number and form of these supposed rings must 
be almost insuperable, on account of their proximity 
to us. But this much Mddler holds (p. 417) as 
established beyond dispute, that whether the inner 
regions of the fixed stars are disposed in layers or 
rings, or whether it be otherwise, the space filled by 



THE CENTRAL SUN. 357 

these stars is certainly not of a spherical form. The 
outer parts of these inner regions do indeed evince 
a somewhat annular form, for here the stars of from 
the 7th to the 11th magnitude are unusually numer- 
ous, both upon the Milky "Way and in the neighbor- 
hood of its boundaries. This stellar ring when 
viewed with the naked eye, must, consequently, 
pretty nearly coincide with the Milky Way ; but a 
telescope of only moderate powers, and one that 
fails of resolving the Milky Way proper, is fully 
capable of revealing to us the individual stars that 
compose it. 

§ 9. The Central Sun? 

Ever since Bradley's time (the middle of the last 
century) the conviction has been growing in the 
minds of astronomers, that the so-called fixed stars, 
together with our sun, are by no means really sta- 
tionary stars, but that they all have a proper and real 
motion of their own. 

The bold and wide-spread creations of poetic 
genius in regard to a vast and all-controlling central 
sun, which enchained the millions of other suns to 
itself, and caused them to revolve around it in un- 
swerving obedience, through the might of its pre- 
ponderating gravity, 2 seemed in this grand discovery 

1 Compare M'adler, die Centralsonne, Dorpat, 1846 ; JJnter- 
sucliungen der Fixsternsysteme, Mitau, 1847 ; Pop. Astr. 4th ed., 
p. 404 seqq. 

2 The occasion of this fanciful supposition was furnished by the 
attempt to transfer the relations and arrangements of our solar 
system bodily into the regions of the fixed stars, of which we 
shall say more hereafter. Since moons here revolved round 



358 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

to have attained a scientific basis. But there was 
needed only a closer investigation of the proper mo- 
tion of the fixed stars, to show how inadmissible this 
view was, however confidently it had obtruded itself 
upon the world. 

Of all the fixed stars, none seemed to have such 
just claims to this high and sovereign prerogative in 
the universe, as Sirius, a sun surpassing all others in 
brilliancy. "But Argelander has well remarked 
that Sirius cannot be the central sphere, since it itself 
has a proper and very observable motion through 
space. ... If there exists anywhere, visible or invisi- 
ble, one grand central body, out-balancing and con- 
trolling all others through a preponderance of gravity, 
the most rapid general movement must take place 
in the region of that body. And as we behold fixed 
stars in all directions, it is clear that in some one 
point the whirl of movements must be most conspi- 
cuous, and from there the rate of motion suffer a 
constant decrease. But nowhere in the heavens is 
such a point to be found — no one of the stars of the 
first magnitude fulfils the condition here imposed." 
(Madler, Oentralsonne, p. 4, 5.) 

These and similar considerations led Madler to the 
final result, "that no such single preponderating cen- 
tral mass is to be looked for in the starry heavens, as 
there is none such in existence." 

In this state of affairs astronomers inclined to the 
view, "that the movements noticed in connection 

planets, and planets with these about the sun, it was thought that 
all suns in like manner must be moving round avast central body 
of equally preponderating gravity. 



THE CENT EAL SUN. 359 

with special stars, were occasioned merely or chiefly 
by the mutual influences of the stars in closest proxi- 
mity to each other." But still this view could not 
be made to account for the data supplied by observa- 
tion and calculation. 

It was left to the deep sagacity and untiring dili- 
gence of Madler, after six years' uninterrupted in- 
vestigation and thorough-going examination and 
comparison of all previous data as to the progressive 
movement of the fixed stars in the heavens, to arrive 
at a result no less simple than surprising, which 
promises at length to explain to us the mysterious 
movements in the heavens of the fixed stars, and the 
wonderful harmony in the construction of the uni- 
verse, or at least to point out the way to such a 
result. 1 



1 It is indeed true that many of the leading astronomers have thus 
far refrained from direct assent to the hypothesis of Madler; and 
a few have been free to express their great doubts as to its correct- 
ness (as Peters in the Astron. Nachrichten, 1849, p. 661, and /. 
EerscheVs Outlines of Astronomy, 3d ed., p. 589). Lamont, how- 
ever, expresses himself in favor of it. Atex. von Humboldt (Kosm. 
3, p. 283), withholds his opinion. But G. H. von Schubert, on the 
other hand, has eagerly laid hold of Madler's idea, and incorpo- 
rated it in his ingenious work, Das Weltgebdude (p. 27 seqq.). It 
is true, as we readily admit, that Madler's grounds are still de- 
fective, and his view far from being incontestably established as 
yet. In order to arrive at a result in all respects conclusive, there 
is demanded the continued observation of centuries, and in con- 
nection with a much larger number of stars than has heretofore 
been the case. But the care and the close scrutiny with which he 
received the observations of his predecessors, as well as increased 
them by his own efforts, and also the harmonious result obtained 
by a combination of the two, seem to lend to the conclusions of 
the sagacious and untiring astronomer the character of great pro- 



360 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

If the assumed centre of the world of the fixed 
stars, to which all their movements are to be 
referred, cannot be a body controlling all others by 
the might of its preponderating gravity, it by no 
means follows that no common centre exists, 
around which stars and systems of Milky Ways re- 
volve. Though it be not the amazing gravitating 
force of one huge central body that induces the 
movements of all the stars, it may doubtless be the 
gravitating influence of one star upon another, and 
of all upon all, which causes the whole to revolve 
about a common central point ; and this centre may 
just as well be assumed to be an empty space, as one 
filled by a body, which body, too, might be one of 
the smallest dimensions. For as each body of the 
system of our world is attracted by all the others 
belonging to the same system, it is not conceivable 
that the whole should move with respect to any par- 
ticular member of the system, but rather, that it 
should take a course which would satisfy all alike. 
Thus there would necessarily arise a common move- 
ment of all abo-ut a common centre (be that an empty 
space, or filled with a body), and the position of that 
centre would depend upon the original disposition 
and arrangement of the stellar worlds. 

If it be true that the countless stars of our system 
suspended in space, affect each other in inverse pro- 
bability, and warrant the hope that they will derive new support 
from future observations. At all events, he has the merit of hav- 
ing given astronomical investigation a new and powerful impulse, 
and of having marked out a path for it, the following of which, 
even though opposite results should be obtained, will signally ad- 
vance the problem of the heavens towards its final solution. 



THE CENTRAL SUN. 361 

portion to the square of their distance, according to 
the common and general law of gravity; if, fur- 
ther, these countless attractive forces of all upon 
all, resolve themselves into a harmonious movement 
about a common centre, just as a thousand different 
tones unite to form one grand and swelling accord, 
— then is the case just the reverse of that which 
takes place in the movements of our solar system. 
Here we behold a huge central sphere, out-balancing 
700 times the united weight of all the other bodies 
of the system, and excluding the possibility of a 
general and harmonious movement about a common 
empty space or centre ; here we behold the several 
bodies composing the system led like vassals round 
the all-controlling sun, these carried along with a 
more rapid movement as they approach their lord, 
those at a distance moving more or less deliberately 
according to the increase or decrease of solar attrac- 
tion. But there, on the other hand, the case must 
be reversed ; with an increase of distance from the 
empty central space there must be an increase of 
movement also, so that the time of revolution must 
in all the fixed stars be about the same. If we sup- 
pose, for example, a certain number of concentric 
rings to be formed by the substance of the earth, 
from the equator to the earth's centre, it is plain that 
the atoms composing the rings nearest the centre 
must have a slower, and those of the more distant 
rings a more rapid movement about the common 
centre. 

If now these be indeed the laws according to which 
the movements of our stellar worlds come to pass, 
31 



362 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

it is clear that stars diametrically opposed to each 
other must have opposite movements. As in a rota- 
ting wheel the spokes of one side have a motion 
from right to left, and those of the other a motion 
from left to right, so also in the great wheel of the 
fixed stars whose circumference is represented by the 
Milky Way, the stars of one side must proceed from 
north to west, and those of the other from south to 
east ; — and of all known means this law, next to the 
one above-mentioned that refers the more rapid 
motion to the greater distance from the grand centre 
(and the reverse), is best calculated to point out to 
us the central point for which we are seeking, if 
there be any such in existence, to which the move- 
ments of the stars are to be referred. Further in- 
vestigation may have something to go upon, if it can 
be determined with reasonable accuracy in what 
direction the supposed centre lies, since the dynamic 
centre of the system of the fixed stars cannot in all 
probability vary much from the mathematical centre 
of the same. Just at this point the two-fold excentric 
position of our sun comes to our aid. We have 
already learned (§ 8) that a point lying nearer the con- 
stellation of the Scorpion than any other part of the 
Milky Way, and on the side of the autumnal equinox, 
marks the position of our sun in relation to the cen- 
tral point. " Consequently, in order from the posi- 
tion we hold to arrive at this central point, the eye 
must be directed to the opposite side of the heavens, 
and in the direction of a line leading from the region 
of the vernal equinoctial point to the Milky- Way 
about the constellation Taurus," (Madler, pop. Astr. 
p. 402.) 



THE CENTRAL SUN. 36 3 

Mailer at length, after the most careful and 
thorough measurements, comparisons and calcuh 
tmns, with the use of all the data furnished by te- 
nons investigators,' arrived at this result, which fully 
harmonies both with these data and the laws above 
mentioned : that the long sought for point lies in th 
beautiful and brilliant constellation of the Pleiades 
(or seven stars), and probably, too, near by or n tt 
brightest star of this group, Alcyone 

"I hence regard," he says at the close of his inves- 
tigations (Oentralsonne, p. 44), -the Pleiades as the 
central group of the whole system of the fi xed stars 
even to Us outer hrnjts marked by the Milky Way, and 
Alcyone that star of all those composing the group^Mch 
n favored by most of the probabilities as being he true 
central sun." But at the same time he remarks, tha 
n consequence of a change in the constellations in 
the course of ages, the centre of gravity belonging to 
the system of he fixed stars may pass from Alcyone 
^^^H^periiapsjojome neighboring star.* 

Br'aaW "£' Cata '° gae ° f 3222 ^-PO-«oos ™ left fehi^ fey 
Bradley. Renewed measurements of the same stars -after the 
mten-al of almost a whole century- must g0 far .^ * 

17800 r ^Tu MadIer aPP ' ied tbhi » th * -ses of more 
than 800 stars wh.eh seemed specially to serve his objeot. Also 

W. mamMd and highly-careful observations in regard to 73 

stars of the Plemdes, 11 of which had been before closely scruS 

mzed by Bradley, were very opportune and serviceable 

kchubert says of the Seven Stars ( Weltgeb p o 7) • '«i „,„ 

of stars alone in their kind is to be observed n the heaven! Z 

ar distant from the vernal equinoctial point-a group w 'h oh 

from the earl.est tunes has specially attracted the attention of 

man. l hls „ the cluster called the Pleiades. Alcyone a star 

of comparably large magnitude, stands there, surrounded b y 



364 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

It is clear from the foregoing, that neither the group 
of the Pleiades nor the star Alcyone holds such a 
conspicuous position in the system of worlds, from 
the possession of a higher essential dignity than the 
other stars, — that the ground of this their distin- 
guished position does not lie in themselves, in their 
nature and individuality, hut merely in their acci- 
dental situation, if the expression may be allowed. 
And as the question here is not in regard to a body, 
hut to a 'place in the universe, whether that place be 
occupied by a body or not, the fond application of 
the term central sun to Alcyone, by the discoverer, 
is not exactly a fitting one, and is much exposed to 
misapprehension by the uninformed. 

five others, which may be fairly distinguished by the naked eye. 
In regard to these six stars, John Michel, of England, has shown 
that they must constitute a physically connected whole, the proba- 
bilities against their close juxtaposition arising from accident or 
optical illusion being in the ratio of 500,000 to 1. The peculiar 
lustre of this group does not, however, depend merely upon the 
six stars visible to the naked eye ; but also arises from a whole 
cluster of stars which are brought into view by means of the tele- 
scope. As in the case of the double and multiple stars a common 
centre of gravity must exist, so also in this cluster there must be 
a common point about which they move ; and if this be not in 
Alcyone, very probably it is not far distant from that star. But 
it is only from the closely-crowded relation of all the members of 
this group, that its point of gravity can derive significance as the 
grand centre of the whole astral system. According to the 30m- 
putations of M'adler, all these bodies are collected and compressed 
into a space not amounting in diameter to four times the distance 
from our sun to the nearest fixed star. It is not the single stars 
of the group, however, but rather the collected might of the whole, 
which lends to this cluster the character of a connecting bond or 
foundation-stone for the whole structure of the heavens. 



THE CENTRAL SUN. 365 

Madler also made an attempt to determine the 
parallax of Alcyone, from a sagacious application of 
facts founded npon the known parallax of the star 
61 Cygni. (Pop, Astr. p. 427). The result attained 
was a parallax of 0", 006533, according to which 
Alcyone is removed from ns 31J million times the 
distance of the sun, a distance requiring 498 years 
for light to traverse. — Our sun in its course ahout 
Alcyone, moves at the rate of 8 geographical miles 
in a second, and requires 18J millions of years to 
complete one revolution. 

Notwithstanding the amazing distance to which 
our sun is removed from the true centre of the system 
to which it belongs, "we still hold a position," as 
Schubert says, "deep within and proportionally near 
the centre of the vast circle bounded by the rings of 
the Milky Way as walls of light." 

We shall close this discussion by giving Madler* s 
view of the arrangement of the whole stellar system, 
as deduced from these his observations and disco- 
veries. He says : x The starry girdle of the Milky 
Way probably consists of two broad concentric rings, 
which at their most distant point from us perspectively 
coincide, and in most part cover each other ; but at 
their nearest point, on the other hand, form such an 
angle with each other as to leave an open space 
where they appear separated. Since now the inner 
and pretty well defined limits of the Milky Way, 
indicate that it is separated from the hosts of fixed 
stars it encloses, though that separation be not a 
complete one, and since, on the other hand, in the 
1 Centrateonne, p. 4G seq. ; Pop. Astr. 415 seqq. 

31* 



obb ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

neighborhood of the Pleiades particularly, a quite 
observable starless space exist?, we may imagine the 
whole constitution of the system of the fixed stars 
to be as follows : The centre of this system is marked 
by a group very rich in stars closely crowded together, 
and contains single masses of considerable size. 
Around this there extends a vast zone proportion- 
ably devoid of stars, having a diameter somewhat 
over six times that of the central system. This is 
succeeded by a broad annular stratum, teeming with 
stars, which is again followed by an interspace con- 
taining but few stars, and so on for an indefinite 
series of starry strata and partially empty zones, 
until we at last arrive at the two outer rings compos- 
ing the Milky Way. These vast rings are not equally 
well developed in all their parts, but exhibit here and 
there a tendency to resolve themselves into groups 
and clusters, though they are chiefly made up of 
isolated and double fixed stars. They are connected 
at various points by starry formations which traverse 
the empty interspaces and bind the rings together. 

§ 10. Variability of the Fixed Stars. 

TTe have ever been accustomed to connect with 
the heavens of the fixed stars the ideas of immuta- 
bility and sameness. But modern astronomy has 
revealed to us an exceedingly rich variety of cos- 
mical formations, groupings and movements in those 
same heavens, as well as the circumstance that 
changes and transformations take place in connec- 
tion with many of their stars, to which the facts of 
our solar system furnish no analogy. 



VARIABILITY OF THE FIXED STARS. 367 

If it be true that we can observe changes in bodies 
which notwithstanding their overwhelming ma^ni- 
tudc appear as mere points of light through the best 
of telescopes, those changes must certainly be so 
mighty, grand, significant and influential, so compre- 
hensive and complete, that none of the changes or 
revolutions with which we are conversant in our 
domain of life are worthy to be compared with them. 

Of all the changes experienced by the fixed stars, 
we can detect only those which affect their light. 
All else that there takes place must for ever remain 
hidden from mortal eye. Their light alone, which 
traverses with the rapidity of thought the immea- 
surable spaces of the universe, reaches our eye only 
after years of travel, and its changes alone can make 
known to us the cosmical changes which are there 
experienced. 

These are revealed in part by a variation in the color 
of the light^ but chiefly in an increased or decreased 
intensity of their light, which in the same star swells 
now to the brightness of Sirius, and then fades away, 
down to the light of a star of the lowest magnitude, 
or dies away entirely. 

In regard to a change in color, that is mostly ob- 
served in connection with the double stars (§ 11), 
where it generally occurs periodically. But it may 
take place in single stars oftener indeed than has 
yet been detected by observation. The ancients 
describe the color of Sirius as red, while this star at 
present shines with the purest white light. 

As to the physical cause of this variation in color, 
science has not thus far been able even to conjecture. 



368 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

Much more significant, however, is the change in 
strength of light, which has been observed in not a 
few Btars (which hence are called Variable Stars), 
and which is peculiarly fitted to give us an intima- 
tion of the great variety and peculiarities of the laws 
of life and movement which obtain in the celestial 
regions. There has been observed with respect to 
more than thirty stars, a more or less strongly marked 
increase and decrease of brilliancy (or apparent 
magnitude), which mostly recurs periodically. The 
two most remarkable stars in this respect, are Algol, 
in the head of Medusa, and Mira (so-called on ac- 
count of this singular characteristic), in the \Yhale. 
Mira attains its state of greatest brilliancy 12 times 
in 11 years, while the period of Algol is only 2 days, 
20 hours and 49 minutes. "AYith respect to most 
of these stars, however, the variation observed in 
them is itself subject to variation. The process of 
increase and decrease in brightness, the period itself, 
and the maximum and minimum brilliancy, are all 
subject to change. Specially worthy of note is the 
fact that in most cases the increase in brilliancy is 
more rapid than the decrease, and that all these 
stars, with the exception of Algol, remain a longer 
time at their minimum, or near that condition, than 
they do at their maximum." Madler^ p. 440. 

Various methods have been tried to account for 
this strange phenomenon. One of the first was the 
assumption of a dark, invisible body, revolving about 
the bright body of the star in the given period, and 
covering its disc in part, just as in an eclipse of the 
sun by our moon. But, however* well this seemed 



VARIABILITY OF THE FIXED STARS. 369 

to account for the striking phenomenon, it was open 
to many objections. Says Schubert: 1 "A dark 
planetary body, which in passing over the disc of 
our sun should so darken it, that the obscuration 
would be as obvious in the regions of the fixed stars, 
at a distance of billions of miles, as the variations in 
the light of Algol are to us, must be of such enor- 
mous bulk and so close to the sun, that, according to 
the mean proportion existing between the bodies 
composing our system, its revolution must be com- 
pleted once in less than 14 hours. But the period of 
revolution in the supposed dark body must be about 
five times that length, which would lead us to infer 
a density in the region of Algol 25 times less than 
exists in our system." Besides, the fact that the in- 
crease of brilliancy is much more rapid than the 
deerease, could not well be harmonized with this 
hypothesis. 

Another attempted explanation would find the 
cause of the periodic variation of light, in the star's 
rotation upon its axis, so that (in a similar manner, 
but in an incomparably greater degree than occurs 
in connection with the solar spots and facules of our 
central sphere,) at one time its brightest side must 
be turned towards us, and this be then succeeded by 
the side less intensely lighted. But this theory also 
meets with many difficulties, such as the one before 
mentioned, that the increase of light in almost all 
the variable stars is more rapid than its decrease, and 
that the amount of increase and decrease is not the 
same in every recurring period. 

1 Naturlclir, p. 99. 



370 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

t 

" A third hypothesis supposes the form of the star 
in question to be flat or lenticular, so that in rotating 
the edge and broad side of the star are in turn 
directed towards us." But such an unusual rotation 
would contradict the laws of gravitation which every 
where obtain, and still not account for the irregular- 
ity in the periodicity of the star's variation. 

This remarkable phenomenon appears most satis- 
factorily accounted for, upon the assumption that the 
stars to which it belongs are subject to a periodic, but 
varying increase and decrease in their development of 
light, grounded in the constitution of the stars them- 
selves. " The increase and decrease of their bril- 
liancy," says Schubert (Weltgeb. p. 64), " reminds us 
of the recurrence of days and seasons with us ; but 
with this distinction, that in our system these changes 
are caused by the influence of the sun upon the 
planets, while with respect to the stars the cause 
probably lies in their own constitution. The changes 
we here experience from the higher to the lower 
grades of warmth, from morning to noon, to night, 
and to mid-night, or from winter to spring, summer 
and autumn, are, in the variable stars, the changes 
from the lowest stage of brightness to the medium, 
and then to the highest, with a return again to the 
medium, and finally to the lowest. Spring frequently 
comes earlier, the summer is hotter and longer, and 
the winter milder than in other years, where the op- 
posite of this takes place. So in most of the variable 
stars, the changes are more or less marked, and the 
different steps of their progress of varying length." 

In addition to those stars which at their lowest 



VARIABILITY OF THE FIXED STARS. 371 

stage of brightness still remain visible, though it be 
only with the aid of a telescope, there are others (as 
those in Sagittarius, Cygnus and Leo,) which have 
for ages appeared visible at periodic intervals of 
many years, becoming again totally invisible after 
each appearance. Perhaps to this catalogue belong 
the New Stars, which have been repeatedly observed, 
appearing suddenly with the greatest brightness, and 
which after shining awhile, have gradually died 
away until they have utterly vanished, becoming 
Lost Stars. Humboldt (Kosm. p. 220,) mentions 21 
such stars, and Madler has added to this catalogue 
one which was visible for a short time in January 
1850, in the constellation Orion. 

Hipparchus, so early as the year 125, B. C, obser- 
ved such a phenomenon. In A. D. 389, a new star 
broke forth near the star Altair of the Eagle, so bright, 
that for three weeks it equalled Venus in brilliancy; 
but in a short time it vanished completely. In like 
manner, a large new star appeared repeatedly in the 
years 945, 1264, and 1572, on the borders of Cassio- 
peia. Tycho de Brahe closely observed the last ap- 
pearance. In the course of a few minutes the star 
kindled up to the brightness of Sirius, in a month's 
time began to fade, and at the end of a year and a 
half had totally vanished. A similar star appeared 
■five times (in the year 134, B. C, and in A. D. 393, 
827, 1203 and 1584,) in the Scorpion. 

Are we to suppose that we have, in these instances, 
examples of stars really newly formed, and soon 
thereupon vanishing into nothing from whence they 
seemed to come ? Such an assumption lacks proba- 



372 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

bility, and is assuredly not in accordance with the 
analogy of the heavens. As the years 945, 1264, and 
1572, are separated by about equal intervals of time, 
it has been conjectured that the star observed by 
Tycho may be one recurring periodically, about 
every 300 years, from a sudden kindling up of its 
surface, dependent upon some inner unknown cause; 
the star after that, gradually so diminishing in bright- 
ness as to remain hidden from view for 300 years 
again. The close of the present century w T ill prove 
whether this conjecture be well-grounded or not. 
The same reasons may lead us to believe the appear- 
ance of new stars in the Scorpion to be periodic in 
its occurrence. That the sudden kindling up and 
subsequent dying out of these stars, is dependent 
neither upon the manner of their rotation, nor upon 
the intervention of a dark body between them and 
us, is obvious enough to every mind. The conjec- 
ture possessing most probability, is that one which 
supposes the stars in question to be dark bodies in 
themselves, which periodically or at irregular inter- 
vals, and through a native, independent action, or 
from excitement from without — perhaps through the 
medium of a magneto-electric process — are brought 
into such a glow or intense excitement, that they for 
awhile shine like stars proper, from an innate light. 

§ 11. Double and Multiple Stars. 

A better acquaintance with these stars, whose con- 
nection with the characteristics of the heavens is of 
such special importance, is marking quite an epoch 
in the history of astronomy. Frequently two or more 



DOUBLE AND MULTIPLE STARS. 373 

stars, mostly of different magnitudes, lie so close 
together, that to the naked eye or a glass of moderate 
powers, they appear as a single star. This effect is 
in many cases dependent on optical illusion ; but in 
many others, continued observation has clearly proven 
that the stars in question have a physical connection, 
and circle about a common central point 1 in such 
manner, that, if they be of equal size and weight, the 

1 We call this central point a common one, and the motion of 
the stars about it a reciprocal one, although frequently the smaller 
moves round the larger body. But the occurrence of the latter 
case does not destroy the fact that the motion is reciprocal, and it 
takes place only when from a vast disparity in size or weight of 
the bodies concerned, the reciprocal effect is so unequal that the 
centre of gravity lies very near the surface or within the larger 
body. Our planetary system supplies a good example in this con- 
nection. The motion here is properly a reciprocal one. Not only 
does the sun attract the earth, but also the earth the sun ; and 
they both move round a common centre of gravity. But in our 
system the case is such that the attraction of the earth, yea, the 
attraction of all the planets and their satellites, upon the sun, 
affect this huge body comparatively very little. The mass of the 
sun is, for instance, 345,936 times that of the earth, so that the 
common centre of gravity lies 345,936 times closer to the centre 
of the sun than to that of the earth : or, as the semi-diameter of 
the earth's orbit amounts to about 95,000,000 miles, not more 
than 275 miles from the centre of the immense body of the sun, 
which is over 870,000 miles in diameter. Were all the planets 
and satellites belonging to the system to take their positions on 
one side of the sun, and there expend their united powers of at- 
traction, still the centre of gravity would lie but little without the 
body of this great all-controlling sphere. The earth and the moon 
furnish another case in point. As the mass of the moon is 68J 
times less than that of the earth, and its distance from us only 60 
semi-diameters of the earth, the centre of gravity still falls within 
the body of the earth. " The true central point in a system is 
32 



374 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

paths of their orbits will coincide ; but if they differ 
somewhat in these respects, as is frequently the case, 
their orbits will be marked by concentric circles. 
Our more intimate acquaintance with this so long 
neglected sphere of celestial life and movement, is 
connected especially with the names Herschel and 
Struve, names as conspicuous in the history of astron- 
omy, as are the stars they investigated in the heavens. 
It is to the astonishing activity and persistent dili- 
gence of W. Struve, before all others, that we owe, in 
connection with greatly improved instruments in his 
possession, the most of what has been accomplished 
in this sphere of research. He described, in the year 
182 T, amid the almost 120,000 stars of from the first 
to the tenth magnitude visible in the heavens at 
Dorpat, which he reviewed in 2J- years with his gigan- 
tic refractor, 3112 double stars, of which only 340 had 
been noticed by Herschel the elder. Ten years later 
appeared his greatest work, under the title : " Men* 
surce mierometricce stellarum duplicium," which gives 
the results of repeated micrometrical measurements 
of 2710 double stars — some hundreds of those pre- 
viously catalogued being excluded from further ex- 
amination on account of the faintness of the accom- 
panying star. Of this great work, by the way, 
Mcidler says : "It may be regarded as the true basis 
of all present or future researches of a similar kind, 
and is a work to which, in the sphere of physical 
astronomy, there is none other worthy to be com- 

that point of gravity about which all the connected bodies form- 
ing a system move in sustained equilibrium — an ideal point, not 
necessarily occupied by any body." — M'adler, Astr. Briefe, p. 86. 



DOUBLE AND MULTIPLE STARS. 375 

pared, either in regard to magnitude of labor or per- 
fection of details." Subsequently, through the con- 
tinued labors of the younger Herschel, Struve, 
Madler and other astronomers, the catalogue of 
double stars has been gradually increased to almost 
6000. 

In the above review of the heavens by Struve, it 
was found that every 88th or 39th star, on an average, 
was a double one. He found, in addition to the sys- 
tems composed of but two stars, 113 triple, 9 quad- 
ruple, and 2 quintuple stars. The quadruple stars 
are in most cases composed of two pairs of double 
stars united. It is worthy of remark that in some 
of the triple stars, not the larger or chief star is the 
double one, but the smaller or accompanying one ; 
somewhat as with us the moon revolves about our 
planet, and with the latter around the sun, except 
that there, not only the planets, but the moons also, 
are of a solar nature. 

The systems become still more complicated as we 
ascend into higher regious. In the constellation 
Cepheus we find one composed of 4 pairs of stars, 
and in Orion, one of 3 pairs bordered so closely by 
one of 4 double stars, that we are led to conclude 
that a union subsists between the systems of these 
two orders. " Such a union of astral systems of a 
lower to a higher, and this perhaps to a still higher 
order, may, possibly, form the transition to those as- 
sembled hosts of celestial worlds revealed to us by 
the telescope under the name of clusters of stars. 
Hundreds, and sometimes thousands of stars, as 
easily separately distinguished through the telescope 



376 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

as those composing the inner ring of our astral sys- 
tem, are in some of these stellar clusters and by the 
bonds of mutual attraction, assembled around a visi- 
ble central star. By far the greater number of these 
clusters, as well as most of the double and multiple 
stars, lie in the Milky Way, or on its borders. They 
are very frequently separated from the crowded 
stratum of the astral ring, by a dark and almost star- 
less space, as though they had drawn themselves to- 
gether from the surrounding bed of stars, leaving a 
dark zone between." 

" A space not greater than that which lies between 
our sun and the nearest fixed star, there contains, 
frequently, hundreds of thousands, yea, perhaps mil- 
lions of suns ; so that one sun cannot in proportion 
be further separated from another, than in our sys- 
tem a planet is from its nearest neighbor. For, if 
we assume in our computations, that the moderately 
bright stars of these crowded clusters are further 
removed from us, we must also at the same time 
greatly increase their supposed individual diameters, 
so that the inexplicable fact of their close connection 
still remains the same as when, with a less bulk, we 
suppose them to be nearer at hand." 

Highly significant in connection with a know- 
ledge of the mutual relations existing between the 
double and multiple stars, are the alternating con- 
trasts to be observed in the strength of their light, 
and in the quality and beauty of their colors. " Con- 
tinued observation has clearly proven that many of 
them experience a change of brightness, which 
clearly betrays a reciprocal relation and influence 



DOUBLE AND MULTIPLE STARS. 37T 

subsisting between them — such a relation, that now 
one is caused to shine with a stronger light, and then 

the other The careful eye of W. Struve 

succeeded in detecting 71 such stars, in which a 
periodic variation showed itself as always very 
probable, and generally very decided." ~No less re- 
markable are the strong contrasts in color which 
they exhibit. While one appears of an emerald 
green, the color of the other is ruby red ; while one 
casts a deep yellow ray, the other shines in clearest 
blue, and the like. " The accompanying star gene- 
rally receives the blue or violet tint, while the chief 
star appears white, yellow, or red, less frequently, of 
a greenish tint." That this phenomenon does not 
arise from optical illusion, as in the case of the so- 
called complementary colors, has been proven by the 
careful observations of W. Struve. He repeatedly 
examined these stars by excluding one of them at a 
time from the field of the telescope, so that had the 
special color been merely complementary, it should 
have disappeared, which however was not the case. 
"The degree of the tinting sometimes greatly in- 
creases in both stars of a pair at the same time, and 
in evident reciprocal relation, as in number 163 of 
Struve's great catalogue, which at one time, in the 
year 1831, exhibited its chief star of a coppery red, 
and the accompanying one of a bluish cast, and soon 
thereafter, the former of a rosy red, and the latter of 
a sapphire blue color." 

The most significant and important result gained 
by a careful and laborious examination of these 
double and multiple stars — a result the correctness 
32* 



378 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

of which is now, as it would appear, fully estab- 
lished — is the thence derived fact, that amid the 
spaces of the iixed stars on high, the same laws of 
movement obtain as with us. The investigations of 
Struve and Madler, for example, have clearly proven 
that the orbits of those distant spheres, just as the 
orbits of bodies belonging to our system, partake of 
an elliptic form, reminding us more, however, from 
their great eccentricity, of the orbit of a cornet than 
that of a planet. " The human mind experiences a 
peculiar satisfaction and secret delight, in learning 
that thus the first of Kepler's laws, so significant 
and comprehensive, silently receives acknowledg- 
ment so far amid the depths of space. But, also, the 
other laws of cosmical motion discovered by Kepler, 
as well as the great law of Newton, bear uncontrolled 
sway over those remote worlds ; though it by no 
means necessarily follows that attraction of mass 
alone effects the movement, since magneto-electric 
attractions, just as all attractions of the higher order, 
obey the same law." ' 

With respect to the two other laws of Kepler, 
which demand " an accelerated orbital motion with 
a diminution of distance," it may be remarked that 
their sway has been detected in several of the astral 
systems composed of double stars. The Xewtonian 
law also "holds good in connection with the orbital 
motions of the double stars, so far as these have been 
learned ; for it is generally only in stars of the first 
(more approximate) order, that an orbital motion can 
be distinctly observed, which, in other orders, exhibits 

1 Schubert, Urwelt, p. 88. 



DARK BODIES IN THE HEAVENS. 379 

only feeble traces of its presence ; and at the same 
time, it is in the stars closest to each other, that, 
according to the rule, the greatest velocity of move- 
ment should be observed." 



[" In the great work which M. Struve has lately published, 
containing the record of his labors on double stars at Dorpat, he 
gives, as the result of his careful examination and comparison of 
the whole body of facts in stellar astronomy, some conclusions of 
a novel character respecting the number and constitution of the 
double, or multiple stars. He examines, especially, the brighter 
stars — those comprised between the first and fourth magnitudes — 
and arrives at the conclusion that every fourth star of such stars 
in the heavens is physically double. He even ventures to assert 
that when we have acquired a more complete knowledge of double 
stars, it will be found that every third bright star is physically 
double. Applying these considerations to the stars of inferior 
orders of magnitude, he finally arrives at the following conclusion, 
which he admits to be of an unexpected character — that the 
number of isolated stars is indeed greater than the number of 
compound systems ; but only three times, perhaps, only twice as 
great." — Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1856, p. 379. — Tr.] 

§ 12. Dark Bodies in the Heavens of the Fixed Stars. 1 

Beyond the limits of our solar system we behold 
none but self-luminous bodies. !N"o Frauenhofer s re- 
fractor, no gigantic telescope of a Herschel or a Hosse, 
shall ever be able to discover for us, whether or not 
there exist amid the countless hosts of the starry 
heavens, dark celestial bodies, in addition to those 
resplendent suns. Were such bodies indeed in exist- 
ence, and exposed to the rays of a blazing Sirius, or 

1 Compare Humboldt, Kosmos, III., p. 2G7 seqq.; Mlidler, Nacli- 
trdge, p. 16 seqq. 



380 ASTKONOMICAL FACTS. 

the concentrated light which streams from a double 
or multiple stellar system, or were they situated in 
the midst of some thickly-crowded starry cluster, 
buried in a very sea of light emanating from thou- 
sands of suns, still the immeasurable distance inter- 
vening between them and us, must ever prevent 
their borrowed rays from reaching our telescopes. 

But that which the bodily eye of man can never 
reach, with all the mighty helps his invention has 
contrived, may, perhaps, still in time be disclosed, 
through the untiring efforts of the human mind, by 
means of observation, combination and analysis. 

Though we may not be able to discover those 
hypothetical dark bodies by means of the influence 
exerted upon them by luminous orbs to which they 
belong, there is a plain contrary possibility of our 
being able to ascertain their presence by means of 
the influence they themselves- exert upon those shining 
oris. This may result from either a partial or com- 
plete obscuration of those bodies at each periodic 
revolution of an invisible sphere about them, or a 
discoverable perturbation in their orbits caused by 
the gravity of existing dark bodies. In the two 
cases, the detection of their influence must be dif- 
ferent, and the proportion in size between sun and 
planet must there be wholly different from what 
it is here; for an observer stationed upon Sirius or 
some other fixed star, would • not, with the closest 
observation, and under the most favorable circum- 
stances, be able to discover the least trace of an 
eclipse of our sun, or of the disturbances in its move- 
ments caused by the planets of our system. The effect 



DARK BODIES IN THE HEAVENS. 381 

of gravitation in this case could not be observed in 
mere disturbances, but only when it was raised to 
such a pitch that our sun should, from a prepon- 
derance of mass in the planetary body or bodies, be 
forced to assume an orbital movement; and a solar 
eclipse could only be visible when a dark body of 
full the sun's size, or even larger, fairly intervened 
between it and the distant beholder. 

However strange and contrary to our notions it 
may be, to conceive of a snn being controlled by the 
superior weight of a dark body, and forced to revolve 
about the latter, the most recent discoveries seem to 
make the real occurrence of such a fact probable 

A paper was produced in the year 1844 by BesseU 
a famed hero of astronomical science, in which it 
was shown that two of the most brilliant fixed stars 
Procyon and Sirius, were, besides the general motion 
to which all the stars are subject, participants of an- 
other which, instead of leading them in wide orbits, 
caused them to describe very small, contracted cir- 
cles; and that hence the motion of these stars can 
be accounted for, only on the supposition that they 
revolve about some point of gravity near at hand 
and in all probability -as these are not double stars 
in the accustomed sense — some central body which 
however mighty in mass or bulk, is invisible to us,' 
and consequently must be a totally dark 2 or but 
feebly lighted body. 



1 Asimnom. Nachrictien, 514-516. 

« ' [This supposition of Bessel's is'acquiring additional support 

" e Pr ° greS3 «* *»^-j? from the more careful observations 

of astronomers. Captam Jacob, of the Madras Observatory a 



382 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

Bessel was fully convinced of the legitimacy of his 
conclusions, and so remained. Other astronomers. 
as Btrieve, for example, doubted, and were inclined 
to refer the phenomenon of peculiar motion to mis- 
taken observations. Still others, as Airy and Pond, 
regarded it as proceeding from some variation in the 
proper motion of the stars in question. In the 
meantime Madler took a decided stand with Bessel. 
In the case of a beautiful double star in the Twius, 
his observations would not agree with the results 
furnished by calculation. Madler then assumed the 
existence of a triple system, in which one of the 
bodies was invisible, and immediately arrived at a 
satisfactory result. 

Finally, in the years 1850 and 1851, there were 
published about the same time, in the astronomical 
journals of Europe (so says Madler, Nachtragen p. 
IT), four different investigations, those of Schubert, 
Pierce, Peters, and himself, in regard to the stars 
Spica, Sirius, and Procyon. In regard to Sirius, the 
second of these stars, Schubert and Peters, independ- 
ently of each other, and with striking agreement, 

year or two since made communications respecting the binary- 
star, 70 Ophiuchi, the exact orbit of which is yet in doubt, al- 
though nearly a whole revolution has been completed since SirW. 
Ilerschel first discovered the character and motion of the star, in 
1779. There must be some perturbing cause, as all the orbits 
thus far computed fail at certain points in representing the ob- 
served positions. The facts are best accounted for by supposing 
the existence of a third and dark body perturbing the other 
two. The same observer, also, in a letter to Prof. Smith of Edin- 
burgh, dated Jan. 26th, 185G, conjectures the existence of a dark 
body in the vicinity of a Centauri, as otherwise unaccountable 
perturbations are observed in connection with that star. — Tr.] 



DARK BODIES IN THE HEAVENS. 383 

ascribe to it an orbit of from 49 to 50 years about a 
point 2J" distant from that star. If the parallax of 
Sirius as calculated by Henderson be assumed as cor- 
rect, this point of gravity must be occupied by a 
mass of at least § the weight of the sun. 

Madlers investigations in regard to the orbit of 
Procyon have not yet been brought to a close, but 
he estimates the period of that body to be from 50 
to 60 years, and the distance of the assumed point 
of gravity to be 2 \" . Peters, who more recently has 
turned his attention also to Procyon, fixes the period 
of that star at 50,096 years, and the mean distance of 
the point about which it revolves at 2 ;/ ,56. 

Madler closes his remarks thus : " So far as regards 
myself, I have not the least doubt, as the matter at 
present stands, that Bessel was entirely correct in his 
suppositions, and that we really owe the greatest and 
most important of all that immortal man's discove- 
ries, to the last evening hours of his life, when he 
was hopelessly confined to a bed of disease which 
he was never more to leave." 

Thus, then, if Bessel's interpretation of these phe- 
nomena be the correct one, all possible variations in 
the relations of the celestial bodies to each other in 
the system of our Milky- Way, are exhausted. We 
see dark bodies revolving about dark bodies (moons 
about planets) ; further, dark bodies moving around 
shining bodies; again, suns about suns ; and finally, 
suns also about dark bodies. 

The two last mentioned forms belong exclusively 
to the world of the fixed stars — no analogy to them 
is to be found in our solar system. Whether, on the 



384 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

other hand, the two other forms belong just as exclu- 
sively to our partial system, or whether the arrange- 
ments which here obtain are extended into the re- 
gions of the fixed stars also, is a problem which can- 
not be satisfactorily determined by astronomy at 
present, and probably never will be. 

But this much, at least, astronomy can assert with 
full assurance, that the view so fondly advanced by 
Fontenelle, that all the fixed stars were suns like our 
sun, with solid bodies similar to it, and like it, encir- 
cled by planets, moons, and comets ; in short, that 
all in the universe was "tout comme chez nous," is 
a view not to be entertained for a moment. Modern 
science has, since the great discoveries of Herschel, 
caught glimpses enough of the infinite variety of 
formations and physical relations existing in the uni- 
verse, to force it to take a decided stand against such 
a tedious and ever-recurring monotony, and to turn 
with aversion from such a contracted and miserable 
theory of the world. 

True, astronomy will not bear us out in opposition 
to the view that arrangements similar to those in our 
solar system, may, indeed, be found without the 
bounds of this system, though not a single fact can 
be brought forward in proof of it. Those stars which 
lie scattered singly in the vault of heaven, and which 
may be supposed the nearest stars to our sun, both from 
the intensity of their light and a discoverable proper 
motion, as also from a measurable parallax — those 
stars lie so far apart, that if we look only to distance, 
there is room sufficient, as we are free to confess, for 
dark bodies, massive as the planets and moons of 
our system, to revolve about them. 



DARK BODIES IN THE HEAVENS. 385 

But on the other hand, when we pass from the 
single to the double or multiple stars, the idea of 
transferring the arrangements which prevail with us 
to those stellar systems, at least so "nude crude," as 
often happens, seems so out of place, that the likeli- 
hood of any such transference actually taking place 
scarcely retains a shade of probability in our minds. 

Herschel the younger went so far as to attempt to 
explain "the wondrous influence green or red, blue 
or yellow light, streaming from a double or multiple 
star, would exert upon the inhabitants of the planets 
belonging to such systems." Schubert also, though 
not at all charmed by a theory embracing so much 
monotony, followed out this idea further. "If it be 
true that they are suns," says he (Naturlehre, p. 106), 
"which give forth light and heat in the same manner 
as our sun, and which are carried by the potent force 
of mutual attraction through one revolution in a 
time exceeding but little one of Saturn's years, if it 
be true that instead of two, three, or four, perhaps 
still more such solar bodies are in close connection, 
then is it not possible that either night or winter 
should even occur in the planetary spheres, lost as it 
were in such a whirl of suns, and no more could any 
mortal eye possibly endure such a dazzling sea of 
light." 

But though it were even proven not directly im- 
possible that the orbits of planets may be entwined 
with the orbits of double and multiple stars, still the 
favorite "tout comme chez vous " will not by any 
means apply in connection with them. For the 
double stars in part compose systems so compact, 
33 



386 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

that we cannot without difficulty ascribe to them a 
mass of the bulk, density and weight of our sun, and 
still less could a host of dark bodies of the weight 
of our planets and moons, thread their ways between 
the suns of these systems, without endangering the 
harmony of th'e movement. Further, let us imagine 
all those thickly crowded hosts of worlds exhibited 
to us by the stellar clusters, in all respects like our 
sun, i. e., with solid, massive central bodies, and each 
of them surrounded by numerous solid, planetary 
spheres. Were this really the case, those worlds 
could never so peacefully and undisturbedly pursue 
their silent and majestic courses through all time; 
nay rather, overcome by the domineering force of 
gravity, the supposed planets, moons and suns, would 
be hurled against each other with appalling and de- 
structive power. 

But apart from the foregoing, there are many 
other facts which seem to conflict with the supposi- 
tion, that the arrangements of our solar system are 
extended into the regions of the double and multiple 
stars. We may mention as of special note in this 
connection, in addition to the marked progression in 
the formations of the heavens, observable from the 
centre of the astral system to the outer ring of the 
Milky- Way, the magnificence of color displayed by 
so many of the single stars, but particularly, and al- 
most universally, by the double and multiple stars. 
In color, light and darkness are united, their anti- 
thesis being resolved and removed. A complete and 
permanent union of light and darkness so as to form 
colors, something that is altogether foreign to our 



THE NEBULA. 387 

system, seems to be what is common in the stellar 
worlds. And this very fact it is which justifies the 
conclusion, that as light and darkness do not there 
exist as such, in separation from each other, but are 
harmoniously united, so also the solar and planetary 
principles, as media of light and of darkness, are 
there united and combined in the same vital and 
harmonious manner; both the solar and planetary 
principles being indeed present in the stars, though 
not apart and in juxtaposition to each other, but in- 
timately united. Not in polar opposition and com- 
plete divorcement, but in vital union, concrete ful- 
ness, and eternal harmony ; not in mechanical con- 
nection (as in a sense our sun and its luminous 
atmosphere are), but mutually pervading each other 
in the most thorough union. 

§ 13. The Nebulae. 

To the inquiry, as to the number of the solar or 
fixed stars contained within the system bounded by 
our Milky- Way, it must be answered that an approxi- 
mate computation, less reliable as the distance in- 
creases, has to take the place of any attempt at enu- 
meration ; and that computation itself hopelessly fails 
of arriving at any reliable results, in the most distant 
regions of the Milky-May, where our best instru- 
ments are wholly incompetent to reach and separately 
distinguish the myriads of thickly-strewn worlds. 

The most acute human eye is capable of distin- 
guishing fairly, under the most favorable circum- 
stances and without a glass, stars of the seventh 
magnitude, whilst a common eye can plainly distin- 



ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

guish stars up to the fifth, or at the highest, the sixth 
magnitude only. Of the stars of the 1st magnitude 
there are but 18, equally distributed between the two 
hemispheres of the heavens. Of the second magni- 
tude there are 55, of the third about 200, of the 
fourth some 460, of the fifth 1160 or more, and of 
the sixth and seventh the rapidly increasing number 
of over 20,000. 

The number of stars visible through the best of 
telescopes in the Milky- Way of the northern hemi- 
sphere, is, however, according to the ingenious and 
laborious computations of W. Herschel, about 18 mil- 
lions. If we allow a number somewhat less for the 
southern hemisphere, we have the astonishing sum 
of about 30 millions of suns within the bounds of our 
Milky- Way. 

Let us endeavor to grasp all that is conveyed by 
the words, thirty millions of suns ! to bring within the 
compass of our minds all that belongs to a single sun; 
let us strive to picture in imagination the infinitude 
of details comprehended in the short expression, " a 
million ! " x 

But is this all ? Have we now reached the limits 
of the universe ? and will not telescopes superior to 
those of the present day, reveal still thousands and 
millions of suns in the outermost regions of the sys- 
tem of our Milky- Way, of which no glimpse can be 
caught by the best modern instrument ? Is it true 
that the system of our Milky- Way is the only con- 

1 At the rate of one hundred each minute, it would require un- 
interrupted counting from morning till evening for fourteen days 
to number a single million. 



THE NEBUL2E. 389 

tinent in the ocean of immensity ? May it not rather 
be a mere island itself, one of thousands like it 
scattered over this shoreless ocean ? 

The reply to this inquiry is still a problem of 
science for the satisfactory solution of which ob- 
servations heretofore made are wholly incompetent. 

A nebulous ground still remains unresolved in the 
Milky- Way, under the power of even the best tele- 
scopes ; and similar clouds of light are to be seen in 
other parts of the heavens. These are called Nebuloe. 
Madler, (p. 447,) describes them as follows: " A good 
naked eye beholds in many places in the heavens, a 
faint glimmer of light, which lessens the darkness of 
the background; and also stars, which instead of 
presenting sharp, well-defined points, like most stars, 
seem to be, as it were, grown together. But this spec- 
tacle gives one scarcely the most distant intimation 

of the scene presented through a large glass 

We have there laid out before us, tracts of all shapes 
and sizes, interrupting the deep darkness of the 
ground of the heavens with a cloud-like light, similar 
to that of the Milky- Way. The very best glasses 
frequently succeed in resolving what through less 
powerful ones appears as a nebulous cloud, similar to 
the tract of the Milky- Way, wholly or in part into 
separate astral bodies, presenting to view a thickly- 
crowded cluster of stars. In other cases, the resolu- 
tion is not so complete that the individual stars can 
be separately distinguished, but still of such a degree 
that the mind cannot escape the conviction, that the 
whole nebula is composed of myriads of stars, just 
as in the case of a heap of grain or sand, the indi- 
33* 



390 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

vidual grains cannot be clearly distinguished at a cer- 
tain distance, though seen with sufficient distinctness 
to assure the mind that the heap is made up of such 
grains." "Where the resolution succeeds, the starry 
structure presents to the eye an indescribably magni- 
ficent spectacle. A nebula in the constellation Her- 
cules presents to the eye when resolved, from 6000 to 
10,000 simultaneously visible stars, which are so 
compacted together at its centre as to form a sphere 
or ball of light." "But very many nebulae are still 
to be found in which not the least approach to a re- 
solution can be detected." 

W. Herschel, who, as his epitaph says, broke 
through the barriers of the heavens (" coelorum claus- 
tra perrupit"), directed his gigantic instrument to- 
wards 2500 of these remarkable formations of the 
heavens, but he succeeded in resolviug but 197 of 
them into stellar clusters similar to those of the re- 
solved nebulous tract of the Milky- Way. His inves- 
tigations first brought us into a more intimate ac- 
quaintance with this exceedingly important and 
interesting part of astronomy. Europe listened with 
astonishment to the accounts of his grand discoveries, 
and to the interpretations which were put upon them 
by the great discoverer himself. Astronomers and 
natural philosophers made them the foundation of 
their hypotheses, and joined in fierce conflict one 
with the other. But that which alone could lead to 
the desired end, a careful and uninterrupted con- 
tinuation of such investigations as Herschel's, was 
neglected for almost a whole generation. It was 
John Herschel, the son, who, inheriting both his 



THE NEBULA. 391 

father's name and his great fame, first took up again 
these investigations, and in a few years advanced 
them in so astonishing a degree. It was subsequent to 
the year 1825 that he turned his chief attention to this 
subject, and, in order to bring the nebular structure 
of the southern heavens within the sphere of his 
observation, sailed to South Africa. He there insti- 
tuted a most comprehensive series of observations, 
in the years 1834-1838, the results of which were 
published in the year 1847. Since that time it has 
been Lamont, of Miinchen, who has in particular 
applied himself to the task of investigating the ne- 
bular formations of the heavens. But that which 
neither these nor any other astronomers could attain 
to, seems left to be accomplished, slowly but surely, 
by Lord Rosses gigantic telescope, the most powerful 
instrument upon earth. 

Some parts of the heavens are exceeding rich in 
nebulse and stellar clusters ; in others they appear to 
be entirely wanting. According to Herschel the 
younger, they are most accumulated in the northern 
hemisphere of the heavens. In the southern, on the 
other hand, while their number is much less, they 
are much more equally scattered over its surface. 
The individual forms of these structures exhibit an 
endless variety. We condense from Humboldt (III. 
329 seqq.) in regard to this matter. The form of the 
nebular structure is at one time regular, spherical, 
more or less elliptical, annular, planetary, or like the 
photosphere surrounding a star ; at another time, 
irregular, and no less difficult to classify than the 
clouds of our atmosphere. The elliptic may be men- 



392 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

tioned as the normal form of the regular nebulae, 
with a great variety of transitions from a round to a 
long elliptic and awl-shaped form. The more the 
form approaches to the spherical, the more readily is 
it resolved into a cluster of stars. It is only among 
the round and oval formations that double nebulae are 
to be found. Annular nebulae are some of the most 
rare occurrences. But seven such are known in the 
northern hemisphere as seen by Lord Bosses tele- 
scope. The space bounded by the ring is sometimes 
of a deep black color, sometimes faintly lighted. 
They are probably stellar clusters disposed in annular 
form. The planetary nebula are much more numer- 
ous than the annular. They have the most striking 
resemblance to planetary discs. They vary much in 
size and strength of light, and several of them shine 
with a bluish light. To the regular nebulae belong, 
besides, the so-called nebulous stars, i. e., true stars, 
surrounded by a milk-white veil or nebula, which in 
all probability is related to and depends upon the 
central star. 

Very different from all these are the numerous 
large nebulous masses of irregular form. ~No two of 
the latter are alike ; but what may be observed in 
connection with them all, and what gives them all 
their peculiar character, is this, that they are alwaj^s 
found in or very near the borders of the Milky-Way, 
of which, indeed, they may be regarded as offshoots 
or extensions. The regularly shaped and well-defined 
small nebulae, are, on the other hand, in part scat- 
tered over the whole heavens, and in part crowded 
together in a region of their own, far distant from 



THE NEBULA. 393 

the Milky- Way. Modern observation has not estab- 
lished the once wide-spread theory of a Milky-Way 
of nebulae, crossing and cutting the Milky- Way of 
the stars, almost at right angles. The most remark- 
able of all the irregular nebular formations are the 
Magellanic Clouds, in the neighborhood of the south 
pole. These striking objects enchain the astonished 
gaze of the wandering mariner, both from their great 
size, and their brilliancy to the naked eye, which is 
equal to that of the Milky- Way at its brightest points, 
as well as from their completely isolated position 
with regard to all the other astral and nebular for- 
mations of the heavens. There are two of these 
clouds, the larger containing about 42, and the 
smaller 10 square degrees of surface. We are in- 
debted to Sir Jno. HerscheVs residence on the Cape, 
for a closer analysis of these wonderful structures. 
They are composed of an assemblage of the most 
diverse elements. Herschel discovered a large num- 
ber of single stars (of from the 7th to the 10th magni- 
tude) scattered through their substance, also, groups 
and globular clusters of stars ; oval, regular and ir- 
regular, closely-crowded nebulae. These clouds are 
not connected with each other, nor yet with the 
Milky- Way. Opposite to them, but somewhat more 
distant, there circle about the south pole, dark spots, 
called by the old mariners Coal-sacks, which are very 
prominent in contrast with the showy splendor of the 
clouds. They are not, indeed, wholly devoid of stars, 
but contain comparately few (only one star of the 6th 
or 7th, though many telescopic stars of from the 11th 
to the 13th magnitude), and it is the marked contrast 



394 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

between them and the adjacent splendor of the Ma- 
gellanic clouds which accounts for their remarkable 
blackness. 

Two inquiries of high import press upon the 
thoughtful observer as he regards these mysterious 
luminous structures : is the distinction between re- 
solvable and irresolvable nebulae to be referred 
merely to the imperfection of our instruments, so 
that as the latter improve the class of resolvable 
nebulae will constantly increase, until at length, when 
we have reached a supposed perfection, all nebulae 
heretofore discovered or yet to be discovered, shall 
have resolved themselves to our astonished eye, into 
millions or billions of single stars ? Or is this dis- 
tinction founded in nature, so that there are really 
nebulae in the heavens absolutely irresolvable ? 

Then follows the second questiou: Are these 
nebulas members of our own astral system, forming 
with it a complete whole, and bound to it by the 
strong bonds of an intimate and essential relation ? 
or are we to regard them as wholly separate and in- 
dependent systems of worlds, so that each one of the 
thousands of nebulae is in itself a distinct system, 
similar to and of equal importance with that one to 
which our sun and our Milky- Way belong ? 

Ever since the more general use of the telescope 
has revealed the nebular formations of the heavens 
with more distinctness, and in greater numbers, the 
most remarkable difference of opinion has exhibited 
itself in connection with this question. Galileo, 
Qassini, J. Michell, and others, regarded all nebulae 
as distant clusters of stars ; Tyeho de Brake, Kepler, 



THE NEBULA. 395 

Ualley, Derliam, Lacaille, Kant, and Lambert, on the 
other hand, maintained the existence of starless ne- 
bulous masses. W. Herschel was at first attached to 
the view that all irresolvable nebulge are extremely 
remote systems of Milky- Ways. " As he, however, 
towards the close of his life, again examined some 
of those nebulae supposed to be immeasurably dis- 
tant, he observed in them a progression towards a 
certain adjacent star, quite manifest even in the short 
course of his own life. These observations forced 
upon his mind the probability, that those were not so 
much inconceivably distant starry formations, as 
luminous masses without form, situated inside the 
boundaries of the heavens visible to the naked eye, 
not by any means at so great a distance. Schroter, 
another no less careful observer, remarked variations 
(for example, a sudden extension or contraction of 
its boundaries) in the nebula of Orion, which took 
place so instantaneously, and over such a vast extent 
of celestial space, that they reminded him much more 
of the electro-meteoric phenomena of our atmosphere, 
than anything else. Similar changes are maintained 
to have been observed in the cloud-like formations of 
the heavens by other observers. 

W. Herschel was but strengthened in his new opi- 
nion, from his examination of the so-called nebulous 
stars, and led back to a view formerly held by Tycho 
cleBrahe and Kepler, if it were in a different connec- 
tion and under a different apprehension. It was this 
— that the unresolved part of the nebula consisted 
not so much of thickly-crowded stars, as of star-ma- 
terial, cosmical matter; so that the universe is a con- 



896 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

stant scene of world-production, a place where 
worlds are being formed. Also, that there was a time 
when nothing existed but floating, unbounded nebu- 
lous matter, and that what now appears as a nebulous 
mass incapable of resolution, will yet in the future 
glitter as a cluster of stars. Perhaps, too, many of 
these worlds have been completed for thousands of 
years, whose rays, sent out since that epoch, have 
not yet reached us, but are still underway — it being 
reserved for our remote descendants to behold them 
in their perfected state. All grades of progress in 
this process of forming worlds are still to be observed 
in the heavens, from the unlimited dispersion of ne- 
bulous matter without shape, to the gathering toge- 
ther and compacting of the same into well-defined, 
regular forms ; from the first beginnings of nuclear 
condensations, to the full completion of suns and 
solar systems. "Just as in a forest" (thus Humboldt 
illustrates this view, Kosm. I., 87), "the same species 
of trees are seen coexisting in all stages of growth, 
from whence we derive the impression of progressive 
development of life, so also in the great nursery of 
worlds we behold the greatest variety of gradually- 
progressing cosmical formations." 

This view has also been adopted, at least in part, 
by G-. H. von Schubert, and independently developed 
and carried out by him, particularly in his ingenious 
work, "Die Urwelt und die Fixsterne." "The emi- 
nent Herschel" says he, p. 60, "has in the most con- 
vincing manner established the fact of the origin and 
formation of the fixed stars from such luminous ne- 
bulous matter, and has indicated many points in the 



THE NEBULiE. 397 

heavens, where may be seen, as it were, those great 
golden birds coming forth from the egg, or still 
covered with parts of the shell — the remains of the 
unconsumed nebulous matter." And again, p. 145: 
" There in the heavens we behold the element from 
whence the stellar suns derive their form and being, 
a uniform, ethereal, mildly-shining matter, which is 
dissipated through the wide spaces of the universe 
like a phosphorescent vapor, everywhere transparent, 
and possessed of the greatest mobility, assuming now 
one form, and then with the rapidity of light seizing 
to itself new boundaries ; but with all these high 
qualities, still deprived of the proper and higher 
form, which is founded upon polarization alone. The 
difference between a well-defined fixed star, shining 
with a bright ray — like the thousand-fold concentrated 
light of the electrical flame — and governed by forces 
of a higher order, and the irresolvable glimmering 
nebula, is no other than that which exists between 
the crude shapeless bodies of our earth and the crys- 
talline. Pierced by a ray of creative power the coal 
becomes a diamond, the nebula a star." 

Schubert further attempts to show that all the ne- 
bulae and clusters of stars, both within and without 
the Milky- Way, form with the latter a well-arranged, 
closely-connected system, mutually conditioning and 
completing each other as its constituent parts. He sees 
a faint image of the grand whole comprehended in 
the organism of the universe, in the luminous atmo- 
sphere of our sun, where there are discovered by the 
telescope, darker and lighter portions adjoining each 
other, caused by the gathering together of the sun's 
34 



398 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

light-ether into solar faculse, and a simultaneous 
formation of solar spots in the places vacated hy the 
ether, where, as through a rent vail, may be seen the 
dark body of the sun. These alternations of lighter 
and darker regions are most striking in the region 
of the sun's equator. And just at this place it 
is that the vast body of the sun is surrounded by 
a still more extensive and immeasurably wide-spread 
nebulous light, the so-called zodiacal light* which 
extends beyond the orbit of Mars, or which is (ac- 
cording to the latest views 1 ) a free and mobile ring 
of light, revolving about the sun, between the orbits 
of the earth and Mars. This ring is seen only pre- 
vious to sunrise and after sunset, being overpowered 
by the blinding light of the denser solar atmosphere 
by day, and presents to the eye a faint luminous ap- 
pearance, similar to the luminous tract of the Milky- 
Way, having a pyramidal form, with its base resting 
upon the horizon. "Were the eye of an observer 
in the region of the sun's equator to be cast into the 
depths of space, it would behold everywhere in the 
direction of the zodiacal light, a girdle or tract of ne- 
bulous light traversing the whole vault of the hea- 
vens, and extending outwards to an immeasurable 

1 " The zodiacal light," says Humboldt (Kosm. I., p. 89), "which 
presents itself in pyramidal form — from its mild lustre, the con- 
stant glory of the tropical night — is either a large rotating nebu- 
lous ring, between the orbits of the earth and Mars, or, less pro- 
bably, the outer stratum of the solar atmosphere itself." Compare 
further, Kosmos I., p .142-148. The plane of the zodiacal light 
deviates from the plane of the earth's orbit but 7£ degrees, for 
which reason it cannot be seen in circular but only in perpendicu- 
lar form, and was called by the ancients, trabs, §ox6$. 



THE NEBULA. 399 

distance What is represented on a small 

scale by the solar atmosphere is repeated in the hea- 
vens of the fixed stars, on a scale inconceivably more 
grand and extensive. The eye of an observer di- 
rected from our planet to the lofty, brilliant, and far- 
reaching expanse, which takes in the whole of our 
cosmical structure, beholds in almost every direction 
a nebulous light — like an atmosphere — which, 
being here and there interrupted by dark open spaces, 
is generally upon their immediate borders, as in the 
formation of solar faculse, intensified and gathered 
together into brighter, denser nebulous clouds, clus- 
ters of stars, and clear, brilliant single stars. The 
unfailing mutual accompaniment of a dark space 
and a cluster of stars, which so clearly favors the 
view that all the visible realms of light belong to one 
connected whole, being the offspring, as it were, of 
one flood of light, is so obvious to every careful eye, 
that Herschel in his age frequently called attention 
to it." l It would appear, further, that the Milky- 
Way of the heavens possesses the same significance 
as the girdle or ring of the zodiacal light, which re- 
sembles the former not only in its lenticular or annu- 
lar form, but also in the circumstance that just here 
those dark solar spots appear with most constancy 
and in the most striking manner, just as the brightest 
nebula and most dense strata of the Milky- Way are 
bordered by dark and almost starless spaces. 

"If we compare more closely" (continues Schu- 
bert, p. 117), "the later observations of Herschel, we 
can scarcely escape the conviction that all the ne- 

1 Urwelt, p. 114 seq. 



400 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

bulse and Milky- Ways belong with, our own, to one 
and the same closely-connected and on the whole 
pretty equidistant system, whose luminous masses 
and generally globular clouds of light, have, just 
like the nebulous belts which surround Jupiter, 
crowded themselves together in a special manner 
only in certain direction, leaving the other por- 
tions of the heavens wholly or comparatively bare. 
For by far the greater part of nebulas discovered up 
to this day, lie not as it were accidentally scattered 
in every region of the heavens, but form pretty 
regular zones and strata, of which one at least tra- 
verses the whole circle of the heavens. . . . The 
Milky- Way, according to Herschel's observations for 
many years, does not by any means consist in gene- 
ral of equally-distributed stars ; for in the half of 
this interesting formation known to himself, 225 
clearly separated clusters of stars were to be pointed 
out, all belonging to one closely-connected whole. 
But why except from such a close connection with 
the great whole of our Milky- Way, those hundreds 
of additional nebulas discovered by Herschel in or 
upon the very borders of this starry zone, and which 
because they formed more closely-crowded and gene- 
rally small globular systems, or nebulous structures 
not capable of resolution, he held to be inconceivably 
more remote than the Milky- Way proper?" 

The oft-mentioned alternation of portions of the 
heavens bright and rich in stars, and portions dark 
and containing but few stars, "justifies [Schubert, 
page 128) the conclusion, that all those nebulous 
formations and cosmical masses in the heavens, the 



THE NEBULA. 401 

distant as well as the near, have proceeded from the 
same once uniform and wide-spread, unbroken nebu- 
lous cloud, which not until it felt the energy of the 
Divine command that it should bring forth worlds, 
resolved itself into those single and separate lumin- 
ous nebulae and glowing spheres." This productive 
and vivifying luminous ether which fills the whole 
starry heavens, the true fountain and store-house of 
all created light which animates and supplies the 
visible realms of immensity, he calls the atmo- 
sphere of atmospheres, which is to all the concourse 
of the worlds of the fixed stars, what our atmosphere 
is to the earth and its inhabitants, and regards it as 
the medium whereby all the thousands of stars and 
stellar systems are bound together into one vast and 
closely-related community of the created. 

The view of the elder Hersehel, in regard to a still 
ever-progressing formation of worlds out of luminous 
cosmical nebulae, has in the meantime, however, con- 
tinuously lost credit. The very astronomers most 
conspicuous in this sphere of investigation, Hersehel 
the younger, and Lamont, have declared themselves 
against it, and in favor of the notion of the perma- 
nent stability of the starry heavens as the result of 
a long-since completed formative process. In regard 
to this question, Hersehel the younger speaks thus i 1 
"All cosmological arguments founded upon the ob- 
servation of such a transition, lie open to the objec- 
tion, that however unequivocally the existence of 
a gradually upward tending series amid a large 
number of contemporaneously existing individuals 

1 Madler, Pop. Astr., p. 455. 
34* 



402 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

may be established, still we have no reason for the 
belief that each individual has passed or could pass 
through all observed stages, or that it is indeed in a 
state of gradual advancement. — The grades of animal 
life, from man down to the lowest orders, are almost 
infinite, and certain naturalists would fain introduce a 
system of development, which, commencing with the 
simpler forms, rises to the more complex, and finally 
to the highest of all ; but so long as the real presence 
of such a development is not perceived — so long as 
every animal through all generations inherits the 
defects of its progenitors, we can at best but assume 
the possible original existence and fruitful manifesta- 
tion of a tendency towards improvement or advance- 
ment, all progress in the now existing state of nature 
having long since reached its end." — In like manner 
Lamont: "If we examine the oldest records and 
sources of information relative to the state of the 
heavens, all is found to agree with what is still at 
present observed. . . . When I take iuto careful 
consideration all the circumstances concerned, this 
appears to me with great probability the legitimate 
result, that the whole cosmical structure, after the 
close of some sort of a formative period, long since 
passed over into a state of sustained equilibrium or 
repose, of permanent and all-preserving order." 

Schubert also, now, in his latest work (Weltgeb. p. 
105), refuses his assent to the theory of the elder 
Herschel. His words are these: "In contradiction 
to the theory of development in connection with 
nebulous matter, heretofore mentioned by us, we 
must now, from the stand-point of present knowledge, 



THE NEBULA. 403 

decide in favor of the view that all the various forms 
of the stellar systems and nebulae of the universe, are 
parts of one vast organic co-ordained whole, which, 
just as the earth and its atmosphere, just as the gela- 
tinous medusa or tremella, and the more highly or- 
ganized animal or the cedar, may have originated and 
may henceforth subsist together, with each other and 
side by side." But he still yet, however, stands by 
his previous view of the unity or close connection 
and relation of all the stars and nebular groups in the 
firmament. He also, according to the above-men- 
tioned work (p. 94), now holds that "those nebular 
formations are not situated in regions of space in- 
definitely remote, but within our own astral system, 
nearer to us perhaps than the inner ring of our Milky- 
Way." 

Madler, however, has shown {pop. Astr. p. 450, 
seqq.) this view which would refer all the phenomena 
of the heavens, without exception, to a space bounded 
by the system of our Milky-Way, to be inadmissible ; 
and most modern astronomers seem inclined to side 
with him, even though they may hold the matter to 
be one which must long remain incapable of a defi- 
nite or satisfactory solution. 

In regard to the more regularly-formed, though not 
as sharply defined as the planetary, nebular masses, 
Mddler has declared the supposition admissible, "that 
they do not consist of stars, but of light, rare, lumin- 
ous matter, star-material as it were, holding some- 
what the same relation to the more dense bodies of 
stars proper, that comets do to planets;" and he also 
allows the possibility, that " they may belong to our 



404 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

astral system, and take part in the complex web of 
its attractions." The planetary nebulae proper seem 
also best explained by the same supposition, since 
the exact rounding off of a cluster composed of 
myriads of very distant fixed stars, could be at best 
but a rare accident, which amid the countless number 
of equally possible forms, could not occur more than 
78 times out of 2500. (?) With regard to the nebulae 
which have already been resolved into distinct, separ- 
ate stars, there exists little doubt of their all belong- 
ing to the stellar system whose outer boundaries are 
marked by our Milky- Way. There are, however, a 
few of these clusters so closely crowded with stars, 
and of such apparent insignificant diameter, that 
besides the above explanation, the other also might 
be adopted, according to which they are regarded as 
lying beyond our Milky- Way, and as not belonging 
to it. These may, indeed, Mcidler hesitates not to say, 
be astral systems similar to the system of our Milky- 
Way. But that which may be allowed as possible, 
in the case of these resolvable nebulae, can scarcely 
be avoided in the case of the nebulae which are of 
irregular form, and wholly incapable of resolution. 
It seems not possible, according to the laws of gra- 
vity, that they should be composed of rare, luminous 
nebulous matter. Were this their constitution, they 
could not for centuries have retained the same form, 
but would have long since been drawn together into 
more or less globular form, through the influence of 
a mutual attraction of their constituent parts. Hence 
it must be assumed that by far the greater number 
of the nebulae are, absolutely considered, capable of 
resolution — that they are true clusters of stars. 



THE NEBULA. 405 

The whole question here depends, first of all, upon 
whether the absolute invariability of form for cen- 
turies, supposed by Macller, has been duly ascertained 
and established. But we have already seen that W. 
Herschel, Schroter, and others, have remarked changes 
of form in connection with nebulae, such as sudden 
expansions, contractions, &c. From the comparative 
rarity of such experiences, however, we are left to 
conjecture that some illusion of vision may have 
taken place in the cases mentioned. From the uni- 
versal attention now directed to these mysterious for- 
mations, we may look forward to no remote day, 
when a much more correct and satisfactory judg- 
ment may be pronounced in regard to this matter 
than is possible at present. At all events, an import- 
ant and decisive point in regard to the whole ques- 
tion of the nature of the irresolvable nebulae, lies in 
the determination of the correctness or falsity of the 
above observations of Herschel and others. 

But astronomy in the mean time seems to ap- 
proach nearer the desired object in another way. The 
number of the resolvable nebulae is increasing with 
every year. Mr, Bond, of Cambridge, has discovered 
1500 small stars in the borders of the nebula of An- 
dromeda, which has hitherto been regarded as abso- 
lutely incapable of resolution ; and although the centre 
of the nebula still remains unresolved, Humboldt 
hesitates not to set it down (III. 316) among the clus- 
ters of stars. Of signal and unwonted service in this 
domain of astronomical science is the colossal tele- 
scope of Lord Rosse. " The 40 nebulas chosen by 
Bosse for examination, have, by the aid of observa- 



406 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

tion, been divided into three classes : uniform circu- 
lar surfaces, round nebulae with one or more marked 
nuclei, and finally, such as are lengthened in certain 
directions, or in general deviate materially from the 
circular form. The first, 10 in number, may be com- 
pletely resolved into distinct stars, under the moder- 
ate magnifying power of 360. In the second class it 
was observed that the brighter star, frequently indi- 
cated by previous observers as a single central star, 
resolved itself into a cluster of closely-crowded 
brighter stars, which again were surrounded by more 
scattered and fainter stars. The nebulae of the third 
class were scarcely resolvable on account of too great 
optical condensation of their inner parts. The 
stars of most of the nebulae are comparatively very 
small." (Madler, Nachtrdge, pp. 24, 25). In regard to 
the celebrated nebula in the sword of Orion, hereto- 
fore considered incapable of resolution, B,osse ex- 
presses himself thus : "I may safely say, that there 
can be little if any doubt of the resolvability of this 
nebula. "We were unable on account of the state of 
the atmosphere, to use more than half the magni- 
fying power the speculum bears ; still we could see 
that all about the trapezium is a mass of stars. The 
rest of the nebula equally abounds with stars, and 
exhibits the characteristics of resolvability strongly 
marked." At a subsequent period (1848) Lord Rosse 
had not announced that his fondly cherished expec- 
tation of being able to resolve completely the nebula 
of Orion, had, as yet, been fulfilled, though he still 
hoped it would be. 

Robinson, an American astronomer, expresses it as 



THE NEBULA. 407 

his decided conviction, " that there does not exist in 
the heavens a single nebula, in a physical sense; " 
and Jo Jin Herschel writes : "Although there are ne- 
bulae to be found, which still appear only as nebulae, 
through the colossal instrument of Rosse, without 
betraying any signs of resolution, we may neverthe- 
less argue from analogy, that there is in reality no 
distinction between nebulae and clusters of stars." 

If we hence take it for granted that all the nebulae 
without exception, will eventually turn out to be 
thickly-crowded myriads of stars, what will become 
of the unity of the astral system, so ingeniously set 
forth by Schubert I 

It does not seem to us, that, even were all the ne- 
bulae shown to be capable of resolution, we should 
be forced to assume the existence of several, perhaps, 
indeed, thousands of separate and independent astral 
systems like our own. The very fact of their being 
resolvable would favor the view that they cannot be 
more distant than the outer ring of the Milky-Way, 
and the more strongly so as the resolution were more 
easily accomplished. And most assuredly if our best 
instruments have revealed a nebulous stratum in the 
Milky-Way which they cannot resolve, but which 
must notwithstanding be regarded as belonging to 
the same system as this Milky- Way, we may place 
the still unresolved nebulae in the same category as 
to distance, and regard them as belonging to the 
same all-comprehending system. 

We should not without regret (and we frankly ac- 
knowledge it) relinquish the view, which has grown 
far into our favor, that all the astral and nebular for- 



408 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

mations of the heavens belong together in one unique 
and comprehensive system; but at the same time 
our preference for this view does not go so far, that 
we should for its sake ignore or lightly regard the 
results of science. Whenever the fruits of scientific 
investigation shall have shown the correctness of the 
opposite opinion, we shall just as readily take our 
stand by it. Certainty does not belong to either 
aspect of the question, as the matter at present stands, 
nor can the abettors of either the one or the other 
view compel submission. And just here lies the rea- 
son why we should ever hold in proper regard the 
view opposite to our own, and leave room for it in 
any general theory we may adopt. 

But were the unity of all astral and nebular forma- 
tions rejected on good grounds, we should then have, 
in addition to our own astral system, with its perhaps 
hundreds of millions of suns, some thousands of 
completely isolated systems of worlds, similar to our 
own and entitled to the same distinction. Indeed, 
just in the same ratio that those remote systems were 
laid open to view by the increasing perfection of our 
instruments, and separated for the first time into mil- 
lions of suns, new nebulae might be espied, which 
are now hidden from our best glasses, but which, 
nevertheless, might be resolved into stars by greatly 
improved instruments. Mddler {pop. Astr. p. 454), 
from a calculation of probabilities in regard to the 
distance of these systems, arrives at the conclusion, 
that the nearest astral system lies at such a distance 
from us, that its light must be under way for about 
30 millions of years before reaching our telescopes — 



THE NEBULA. 409 

and yet light travels with the inconceivable velocity 
of 192,000 miles in a single second ! What an 
amazing distance ! But think ! the distance of the 
most remote astral system ! 



a [The foregoing representations, involving the zodiacal light, 
may require some modification from the following. 

One of the most important recent additions to our knowledge in 
regard to the solar system, pertains to an object belonging to our 
own planet — the Zodiacal Light. This phenomenon, which has 
been the subject of such different opinions, and referred to such 
different places and connections in our system, seems at last to 
have been located. It is now regarded as a nebulous ring belong- 
ing physically to the earth, and revolving round it at the distance 
of some thousands of miles. It is the nearest known body in the 
firmament. It suggests an analogy between the earth and the 
planet Saturn, and, like the inner ring of the latter body, it is 
transparent. As this new discovery is of such importance, and 
concerns a body so close at hand, yet so little known until within 
a year or two, we shall quote at some length from a paper by the 
Rev. George Jones, U. S. N., announcing his fruitful observations 
in regard to this object. 

Rev. Mr. Jones says: " Only some vague notices of the zodiacal 
light occur in ancient authors, before it is distinctly and briefly 
mentioned by Chauldry, in 1661. It was first carefully observed 
by Cassini, an Italian by birth, at the Observatory of Paris. He 
thought it an emanation of the sun. His associate, Tacio, thought 
it a ring around the sun. Miran, in 1731, thought it an atmo- 
sphere connected with the sun. In all subsequent speculations, 
no new observations, after Cassini's, were used, till 1832. In 
1844, Biot observed that the nodes of the zodiacal light did coin- 
cide with those of the earth, and suggested that it might be more 
local than had been supposed. He found that it gave more heat 

than the tail of a comet did The zodiacal light appears 

best when it is on the ecliptic. When at the summer solstice and 
on the tropic of Capricorn, the zodiacal light was visible from 11 
to 1 in both horizons at once, with their apices approaching each 

35 



410 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

other. "In the centre of the light is a condensed part, with a 
boundary of its own. On this voyage [when Mr. Jones made his 
observations], Jan. 31, 1854, at Loo Choo, he first noticed the pul- 
sations of intensity in the space of a minute or two that it exhi- 
bits on some occasions. He made 331 sets of observations. He 
found that, if by the revolutions of the earth he receded from the 
ecliptic, the zodiacal light moved a little in the same direction, 
and vice versa." 

Mr. Jones then stated that the following facts he had noticed 
could be explained by one supposition, viz., that of a nebulous 
ring surrounding the earth. The following are the results of his 
observations : 

" 1. This light cannot be from any body involving us in its 
matter, else we could not get boundaries to it, any more than we 
could to a mass of fog or a column of smoke in which we were 
involved. We must be apart from it in order to get bounds. 

2. It cannot be from a planetary nebulous body revolving 
around the sun, but must be from a nebulous ring ; for it is to be 
seen every morning and evening in the year, when the- moon or 
clouds do not interfere, which could not be the case were it any- 
thing else than an unbroken ring. 

3. If a ring, with the sun for its centre, it cannot be within the 
orbit of our globe ; for then it could not be seen simultaneously 
over the eastern and western horizon at midnight, the spectator's 
horizon then extending far above it, on either side; nor could its 
vertex ever be in the spectator's zenith, or indeed any great dis- 
tance above his horizon, which is contrary to the facts. 

4. Is it a solar ring extending beyond the earth ? 

On this subject I must refer to the data afforded by these obser- 
vations, for it is only from facts that we are able to argue in the 
case. Any one examining these data will see, I think, that the 
lateral changes from hour to hour in the boundaries of the zodia- 
cal light, especially towards the horizon, could not have taken 
place in a ring so distant as a solar ring would have been at the 
point where reached by the horizon. ... If, in the course of four 
or five hours, the earth's rotation carried me from the southern to 
the northern side of the ecliptic, or the opposite, the zodiacal light 
changed with me, its lateral boundaries shaping themselves ac- 
cording to my change of place. This was not always the case, 



THE NEBULA. 411 

but it was the general fact. When I was far in southern latitudes, 
the greater mass of the zodiacal light, instead of being on the 
ecliptic as here, had shifted over to the south ; and as we came 
from Eio to New York, as rapidly as steam could carry us, the 
mass of light came with us to the north once more ; still, how- 
ever, in its varying positions, having a reference to my position 
with regard to the ecliptic. I ask, supposing that the zodiacal 
light is from a solar ring, which would make the base of its light 
at its first and last appearance, nearly or quite 180,000,000 miles 
off, would that light at its base show such changes as it actually 
does in half an hour or an hour, when the spectator's place on the 
earth has been so slightly changed ? I have taken a few of my 
observations, and have submitted them to calculation, not making 
much of a selection, for almost every observation in the book 
would give similar results." 

Mr. Jones then goes on to detail some observations and calcu- 
lations too lengthy to be introduced here, and arrives at the con- 
clusion that a solar ring will not meet the data of the case. But 
he says, "an earth-ring will do ; that is, a nebulous ring around 
the earth will readily allow such lateral changes to be produced 
by such a change of the spectator's place. " 

"But there is another view of this subject which may be con- 
sidered still more conclusive against such a solar ring. Take 
cases which very often occur when the ecliptic is somewhat toward 
a right angle to the horizon, and circumstances therefore favorable 
for a good display of the zodiacal light. Say it is morning, an 
hour and a half before sunrise. The base of this light will be 
exceedingly brilliant — as much so almost as if the sun were just 
going to rise — while the vertex of the light overhead will bo so 
dim as to be scarcely made out. Yet on the supposition of a solar 
ring reaching beyond the earth, the base of that light must be 
180,000,000 of miles from us, and the vertex comparatively only 
a very short distance, while also the whole circuit of the ring is 
equally illuminated by the sun, and those portions near our zenith, 
• as far as I can judge, also more favorably situated for reflecting 
his light than those portions at his base. We can scarcely imagine 
such a state of things. 

"Believing that this query, as to the data of the case being met 
by the supposition of a solar ring, must be answered in the nega- 



412 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

tive, I am driven to the only alternative, of a nebulous ring around 
tlie earth. The moon's zodiacal light seems also to show that 

matter lies within the orbit of the moon We may well 

query — if the zodiacal light comes from a nebulous ring around 
the earth and within the orbit of the moon, may not the shooting 
stars, and even the aerolites have their origin there. Observa- 
tions, I think, show that there is a constant commotion within the 
ring itself; may not the nebulous matter, half agglomerated here 
and there, be shot by these commotions beyond its sphere, and, 
caught by the attraction of the earth, be drawn down, till, striking 
our atmosphere, they glance in any casual direction, and taking 
fire become consumed, thus giving us the shooting stars? And 
may not this nebulous matter, still further solidified and with a 
same fate, afford us the aerolites ? For if such matter could have 
once afforded us our moon, it may easily afford bodies such as 
aerolites are found to be. What is nebulous matter? My obser- 
vations throw no light upon the subject. It is very transparent, 
for I had no difficulty in seeing stars of the sixth magnitude 
through its most effulgent, and therefore densest portions. But 
transparency does not argue tenacity as a matter of course ; for 
rock crystal and the diamond are the most transparent, while 
they are densest and hardest of all bodies. But of whatever 
composed, I do not suppose the ring of the zodiacal light to be 
composite, for its internal disturbances are opposed to this. But 
with our present knowledge, such reasonings cannot satisfy us : 
they only beckon us to be searchers and further collectors of facts." 
— Annl. Sclent. Bis., 1856, p. 374, seqq. 

The theory of Mr. Jones is favorably received by the scientific 
men of the country. Prof. Peirce thinks that if his theory had 
been first proposed, no second would ever have been entertained. 
" His only objection had been that one satellite could never 
maintain a ring, and he is still of that belief, but is convinced 
that it has many other satellites too small to be seen, and that 
these satellites furnish the meteors which fall to the earth." 

Prof. S. Alexander arrives at the conclusion that the earth's 
ring revolves in about 12 hours, at a distance of nearly 17,000 
miles from the centre of the earth. He deduces the distance in 
connection with the fact, that the apices of the zodiacal light are 
35° apart when, simultaneously visible. — Tr.] 



RETROSPECT. 413 

§ 14. Retrospect. 

Nowhere in the known universe is absolute rest to 
be found. All celestial bodies are involved in a 
whirl of a varied and complicated movement, and 
none of them can escape its magical influences. 

Rotation about an axis is the simplest form of 
movement. This species of motion is a constant 
and invariable law in our solar system, to which the 
king of day himself, no less than the smallest of his 
subjects, is compelled to conform. The same law in 
all probability prevails even to the utmost limits of 
the worlds of the fixed stars. 

A second form of movement, which may either 
coincide with the former (as in the case of the moon), 
or be different from it (as may be seen in the planets), 
is that in which one body revolves about another, or 
rather, the two revolve around a point of gravity 
common to them both. This movement is also con- 
ditioned by laws, the general prevalence of which 
throughout the whole universe is scarcely any more 
a matter of doubt. 

Our moon revolves round the earth, forming with 
it a partial system ; the earth with the moon circles 
about the sun, and the sun itself, with all its planets, 
moons and comets, is involved in that majestic cir- 
cling dance of the spheres, in which millions of suns 
move harmoniously around a common centre. And 
if the thousands of nebulae capable of being reached 
but not resolved by our telescopes, are systems of 
Milky- Ways similar to our own, we may certainly 
with great probability suppose that all these island- 
35* 



414 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

worlds scattered throughout the ocean of immensity, 
are related to each other, forming a higher, yea, the 
very highest system of created life and movement. 

Our solar system does not occupy the very centre 
of the great city of worlds surrounded by the rings 
of the Milky-Way as magnificent walls of light. 
But still our position is comparatively quite near this 
central spot — "somewhere upon the great central 
square," as it were, of the city of worlds. 

If we compare our solar system with the rest of 
the worlds belongiug to the system of the Milky- 
Way, we are at once struck with the effectual con- 
trast that reveals itself, and which would represent 
our solar system as one in fashion, constitution and 
arrangement (and perhaps the only one of the kind 
in the universe) — which, while it is supported and 
animated by the same fundamental laws of life and 
movement as all the rest, still, in all other respects, 
maintains its independent and peculiar character. 

But it is at the same time to be observed, that 
when our solar system, with its independent and 
peculiar character, a structure perhaps without a 
counterpart in the whole cosmical system, is com- 
pared as a whole to the great whole comprehended 
by the system of the Milky-Way, it represents the 
latter in many respects, as a diminutive model of this 
system of the fixed stars. For just as our solar sys- 
tem from its outer limits to its centre, gradually as- 
sumes a different nature, does, mutatis mutandis, a 
repetition of the same take place in the system of the 
fixed stars. We have previously remarked the fact, 
that, in our solar system, as bodies increase in dis- 



RETROSPECT. 415 

tauce from the sun, the common centre of the sys- 
tem, they also increase in size and in the number of 
their accompanying bodies, with which, also, they 
form partial system ; but that they in a similar ratio 
decrease in density. The analogous occurs in the 
astral system of the heavens. 

Our solar system may be compared in the effectual 
contrast it everywhere presents to the astral system, 
to an island in the wide ocean ; l in loosing from the 
island we forsake the firm land, it recedes from our 
view, the waters gather more around us, until, the 
traces of that which is firm and stable dying out, we 
are left in the midst of a very different element. As 
in our solar system there is a decrease of density with 
an increase of distance from the centre, so also in the 
system of the fixed stars as distance increases density 
grows less. The stars nearest to us seem still, in a 
measure, to remind us of the solidity of the bodies 
of our system, from their density and fixed outline ; 
whilst in the more remote celestial regions the simi- 
larity gradually completely disappears. The same 
analogy holds good with respect to size. And as 
with us the planets nearest the sun pursue their 
courses alone, and groups of closely-related bodies 
multiply and grow larger in the number they contain, 
in proportion to their distance from the centre of the 
system ; so also amid the worlds of the fixed stars, 
but on an infinitely grander scale. "If we," says 

1 Accoiding to John Herschel, there is scarcely a region to be 
pointed out in the whole known universe where the fixed stars lie 
so distant from each other as does our sun and the nearest fixed 
stars. — Schubert, Weltgeb., p. 29. 



416 ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 

Schubert, " consider the stellar clusters as double or 
multiple stars of a higher grade, it seems worthy of 
note that the clustering together of stars of the latter 
kind, should always take place in the regions of the 
universe supposed to be most distant from the centre 
of the astral system ; while the association of a few 
small stars into a system is frequently observed in 
that part of the heavens thought to be much nearer 
to us, until at last, comparatively quite close at 
hand, such collections of a few stars even become 
more rare, and the state of isolation more general." 
We may here also remind the reader how analo- 
gies are furnished throughout the starry heavens 
to corresponding conditions and movements in the 
solar faculse and solar spots, referring to our remarks 
about the variation of brightness in the stars, the ex- 
pansions, contractions and condensation of nebulae, 
&c. . We may further refer to the correspondence to 
be observed between the zodiacal light and the Milky- 
Way, and to the fact that Saturn, with its remark- 
able system of rings, is best fitted of all known cos- 
mical formations, to illustrate to us the arrangement 
of the rings of the Milky- Way; and finally, we may 
note how remarkably our countless comets remind 
us of the nebulae of the firmament, which resemble 
the former, not only from their being in part infin- 
itely light, mobile, with a nuclear, star-like conden- 
sation, and composed of a similar luminous vapor — 
though of a brilliancy vastly superior — but also pre- 
sent other phenomena which remind us much more 
closely of those mysterious erratic bodies. The 
close and crowded position of the remote celestial 
bodies, so in contrast with the wide distances of our 



RETROSPECT. 417 

system, finds a distant analogy in the extremely close 
approach of the comets to the sun. But still much 
more striking analogies are offered by the appearance 
and configuration of nebulae and comets respectively 
In 15 nebulous stars, for example, there is to be seen, 
m addition to the more dense nucleus, a pencil-like 
or fan-like tail, while others have a hooked shape, and 
the like. On the other hand, comets have been ob- 
served, the nuclei of which-similar to the nuclei of 
nebulae -are composed of numerous quite small 
single stars. Schubert is of opinion (Urwelt, p. 56) 
that were the comets self-luminous in the same 
intense degree, "the millions of these erratic bodies 
which belong to our planetary system, would then 
appear to a distant observer, as so many suns movino- 
m opposition to each other in a narrow and closely- 
crowded space." 



CHAPTER SIXTH. 

CONFLICT AND HARMONY BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND 
ASTRONOMY. 

§ 1. Design of this Chapter. 

The results of astronomy have in the present day 
become the common heritage of all well-informed 
and cultivated minds, and are signally deserving of 
our high consideration. For no human science is so 
well fitted as astronomy, to loose the fetters which 
bind the human mind to the narrow sphere of earth ; 
none so able to widen the contracted horizon of 
earthly views and efforts, or to waken up and sustain 
w 7 ithin the breast of man a consciousness of his high 
calling to make everything in time and space sub- 
servient to the wants of his mind. 

But the high significance of this science in the 
culture of the mind, can only be asserted, when the 
results of astronomy are not merely laid up in the 
memory, but also brought into vital and fruitful com- 
merce with the other possessions and efforts of the 
mind. It may very readily happen in this process of 
fullest appropriation, that new ideas which we just 
now acquire, may stand in conflict with previous 
knowledge or information, gathered from other 
quarters. This is signally the case in the sphere of 
religion, or rather theology, its scientific mode of ap- 
prehension ; for both this science and astronomy ex- 
tend their spheres of knowledge into the higher, 

(418) 



DESIGN OF THIS CHAPTER. 419 

supramunclane regions, and hence frequently come 
in contact or extend into each other. 

Natural religion, which the human mind, enriched 
by the contemplation of nature and history, has ac- 
quired from its own depths, and by its own intellec- 
tual efforts, is ever ready without much difficulty to 
yield to the really or apparently superior claims of 
new knowledge, if it contradict the previously ac- 
quired possessions of the mind, and to permit itself 
to be reconstructed from the new material. But the 
case is different with revealed religion. This, as 
objective, divine truth, demands unconditional sub- 
mission and acknowledgment on the part of all con- 
tradictory or irreconcilable knowledge — a demand 
which cannot but be conceded to so long as we re- 
cognize it as revealed religion. But were the truth- 
fulness and superiority of the contradictory astrono- 
mical results real and incontestable, and the contra- 
diction itself an absolutely irreconcilable one, our 
faith could then no longer retain its position as a 
revealed religion. 

Such is found to be the sad case of the Christian 
religion at the present day, according to charges 
made from various quarters, with great assurance. 
It is maintained that astronomical results of un- 
doubted correctness have been obtained, which ir- 
resistibly force us to a theory of the world which is 
wholly irreconcilable with the Christian theory, and 
completely overthrows it. 

Three grand points in the Biblical theory of the 
world, with which at best the Bible and its considera- 
tion as a record of Divine revelations, stand or fall, 



420 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

are here called in question. First, the Biblical teach- 
ings in regard to the creation of the world, both with 
respect to its general features and also to the special 
detailed facts of the process ; next, the doctrine of 
the redemption of the world through the incarnation 
of the Son of God, with its preliminaries and con- 
sequences; and finally, the Biblical teachings in 
regard to the end of the world and the judgment, as Ihe 
close of all historical developments in the world. 

But we design looking the pretended antagonist 
somewhat more fairly in the face. We design to see 
whether our faith in the Divine origin and authority 
of the Scriptures, which have heretofore so abun- 
dantly verified their power in life and in death, 
which have transformed and renewed the world, 
must yield to the light of this human science, must 
really blush to be taught its own credulity. And 
finally, we design to see whether there may not be 
effected a reconciliation and a union, whether the 
forbidding antagonist may not, after all, on a better 
understanding, become our willing friend and ally. 

§ 2. The Doctrine and History of the Creation. 

Infidelity has ever felt itself specially called upon 
to contest the Biblical doctrine and the Biblical his- 
tory of the creation. Deism and Pantheism, partly in 
alliance and partly at dissent, have been equally 
prompt in entering the lists against these hated op- 
ponents. Pantheism has been specially bitter against 
the doctrine of the creation; while Deism, on the 
other hand, has chiefly contested the history of the 
creation. 



DOCTRINE AND HISTORY OF CREATION. 421 

As Deism found its views to harmonize with the 
Biblical theory of a creation out of nothing, at the 
bidding of the Almighty, it had nothing to object to 
the doctrine itself, but merely to the assertion of its 
Divine origin, whicli in its denial of the possibility of 
revelation or inspiration from above, it cannot allow. 
But, in order to give this denial a specious coloring, 
it has been over-zealous in contesting the history of 
the creation ; endeavoring to show that the latter is 
fall of contradictions with itself and with the results 
of physical research, full of childish notions, laugh- 
able blunders, and absurd suppositions, so that even 
were revelation possible, such a book could not pass 
as Divine. 

The sympathies of Pantheism were enlisted in a 
wholly different direction. The transcendence of 
God, his exaltation over time and space, with a crea- 
tion proceeding from the will of this transcendent 
Being, the very point in which Deism agreed with 
the Bible, was to it an exceedingly bitter draught. 
Its hostility was hence chiefly directed against the 
Biblical doctrine of the creation, against the scrip- 
tural views of a creation in time and from nothing, 
through the will of a personal God, distinct from the 
world, and infinitely exalted above it. Its hostility 
towards the history of the creation was founded 
altogether on secondary considerations. This history 
was obnoxious to it, merely because that hated doc- 
trine lay at its foundation, and had assumed in it a 
concrete form. Hence it blushed not to make com- 
mon cause with Deism in combating the history of 
the creation, and to appropriate to itself the trivial 
36 



422 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

objections and absurd charges of the former. It 
hesitated not a moment to stoop to the disgrace of so 
treacherous and dishonorable an alliance, with an 
antagonist formerly despised from its very heart, and 
held in proud derision, and one which urged the con- 
test against the historical account of the creation, for 
the direct purpose of getting rid of those views of 
that account which alone seemed of any consequence 
to Pantheism itself, if indeed even they were more 
than half reasonable — its teachings respecting the 
immanence of Deity, the observation of succession 
in creation, &c. 

It is not our object here to combat Deism and 
Pantheism, as such; but merely to show the ground- 
lessness of their mutual appeal to astronomy — to 
show that astronomy in its established results does 
not join with them in opposition to the Bible, but 
that it agrees with the latter in combating the posi- 
tions of both Deism and Pantheism. 

From this stand-point we have not the least fear as 
to the issue of the assault upon the Biblical doctrine 
of the creation. But as the aggression is made, not 
with the weapons of astronomy, but of speculation, 
the charge may be repelled with similar weapons, if 
any one consider the matter to merit so much con- 
sideration. No astronomer has ever pretended to 
maintain that the results of his empirical research 
have forced him to deny the possibility of a creation 
out of nothing. "Wherever astronomy has departed 
from its legitimate object of experimental investiga- 
tion, and has built up hypotheses touching the pro- 
bable origin of the celestial bodies, upon the basis of 



CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 423 

results obtained, it has ever come to a boundary 
where it was said, "Hitherto — but no further." We 
might, perhaps, not be mistaken in supposing that 
with the aid of this science, the origin and progres- 
sive advancement of the celestial bodies to the state 
in which they are now found, might, from the 
analogy of beginnings and developments which are 
still matter of observation, be made in a measure 
intelligible to the human mind. But astronomers 
have never seriously thought of attempting to decide 
whether the primeval matter and forces concerned in 
the production of these bodies, existed from eternity, 
or were created in time ; whether the cooperation of 
this matter and these forces in the formation of cos- 
mical bodies, was merely the result of accident, or 
whether it was produced and directed by a higher, 
personal, superintending will. 

It hence merely remains for us to adjust the pre- 
tended contradiction between astronomy and the 
Biblical history of the creation. 

§ 3. The Creation of the World in Six Bays. 

It is objected first of all, and from different quar- 
ters, that the Bible limits the process of the creation 
to six days. 

Minds have in time past been stumbled at the 
circumstance, that God, of whom it is said: "He 
spake and it was done ; he commanded and it stood 
fast," 1 should have spent six days in the creation of 
the world, and not have accomplished it in a single 
moment. But more lately, since our theory of the 

1 Ps. 38 : 9. 



424 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

world has been modified by Herschel's ideas of a 
still progressing astrogenesis, and the hypotheses of 
geology concerning the formation of the earth's crust, 
it has been deemed by many inconceivable, yea, 
even absurd, to suppose that the heavens and the 
earth should have originated and attained their pre- 
sent structure and perfection in the space of merely 
six days. At least thousands or myriads of years, it 
is said, if not millions or billions, must necessarily 
have been spent in such a creation as we behold. 

It is not our intention to combat the astronomical 
or the geological suppositions upon which this argu- 
ment is founded, or to cast suspicion on them, 
although those are in reality at best mere hypotheses 
which cannot lay claim to complete certitude, but 
are founded merely on a greater or less degree of 
probability. "We shall pass altogether by such often 
used and often misused arguments ; for one reason, 
because we can do without them. For another rea- 
son, because, say what we will against the reliability 
of the hypotheses touching the formation of the earth 
and the stars, there still remains an impression of 
which we are wholly unable to rid ourselves, that the 
process of the formation of the whole world, from its 
first beginning to its last finishing touch, must have 
required a much longer time than merely six times 
twenty-four hours. 

For the same reasons we shall pass by the theolo- 
gical argument, " that one day is with the Lord as a 
"thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 
or, that the question is not one of leugth of time, 
but o£ the measure of the Divine influence exerted, 



. 



CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 425 

in the more rapid or slower process by which, the 
worlds were completed, and the like, although we 
will by no means admit that they are without signi- 
ficance and value. 

We shall pass by all these, as we have said, since 
we do not stand in need of them, but at the same 
time we shall not deny that they possess both truth 
and weight. A proper understanding of Genesis 1, 
such as we have arrived at, Chap. 4, § 8 and 17, is 
amply sufficient to prove the futility of this and all 
similar objections. 

The six days work had nothing to do with the first 
creation of the earth, to say nothing of the creation 
of the universe. The heavens and the earth were 
already in existence (v. 1) : they were both created 
and indidualized before this work began. But the 
earth, at least, was still devoid of light and life : it 
was " tohu va bohu." Both these it received during 
the six days' work, in continual progress from their 
lower to the higher grades. It was during this time 
that the earth received its present form, its present 
physical forces, its present inhabitants, and its present 
relations to the rest of the heavenly bodies. These 
are all points in which neither astronomy or geology 
has the least right to pass an opinion as to the length 
of the process. Astronomy may have a right to 
maintain that the heavens of the fixed stars must 
have been in existence for hundreds of thousands of 
years, but it has no right to say that the sun, moon, 
and stars, may have regulated and ruled our earthly 
night and day, prior to the fourth day. There was 
necessary, in addition to a power of exciting light, 
36* 



426 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

winch may have been possessed by the stars since 
their first origin, a susceptibility to light on the part 
of the earth, in order that their agency might affect 
the latter ; and no dogma of astronomy can disturb 
our clear conviction that this commerce of influences 
was opened at the time represented by the Bible. 
Equally ready are we to concede to geology, that vast 
periods of development, and demolition of previous 
forms of matter, may have preceded the present form 
of the earth. These periods occurred before the 
tohu va bohu, and there is not a word in the Bible 
antagonistic to such a view. But never can geology 
convince us that the last preparation of the surface 
of the earth for the residence of man, must have 
required a time of either more or less than six days. 
We have already stated why God did not choose to 
give the earth its present form in a single moment, 
rather than extend and distribute his creative influ- 
ence over six days, should any one here still feel dis- 
posed to object. Besides, the objection has been 
sufficiently answered heretofore, by the reference 
made to Gen. 2 : 3, by the Church Fathers. The 
form, distribution, and duration of God's creative 
agency, were determined with respect to man, just 
as the earth itself was prepared for him. God's em- 
ployment on the earth was to be a pattern and type 
of man's future earthly activity. 

A second objection against the representations of 
the Hexsemeron, arising out of the later astronomical 
and geological results, rests upon the unequal distri- 
bution of creative activity between the six days. The 
fourth day is particularly conspicuous in this connec- 



LIGHT BEFORE THE SUN. 427 

tion. Whilst five whole days were spent in the com- 
pletion of our earth, which is at best but a mere point 
in the whole universe, it wonlcl be maintained, it is 
objected, that all the rest of the universe, with its 
millions and perhaps billions of suns and worlds, was 
finished in a single day. But it is clear that the same 
misapprehension lies at the foundation of this objec- 
tion, which gives rise to the controversy about a six 
days' work in general. If we confine the work of the 
fourth day to the establishment of a permanent rela- . 
tion between the earth and the celestial bodies, which 
is not merely justified, but even required by the re- 
cord, all difficulty immediately vanishes, and the dis- 
tribution of creative activity, as mentioned in the 
Hexsemeron, exhibits the fairest and most equal 
proportions. 

§ 4. The Creation of Light before the Sun. 

A host of severe and clamorous complaints besides, 
which prefer the charge not merely of contradictions 
with modern astronomical results, but also of puerile 
narrowness of mind, absurdities and self-contradic- 
tions, is heaped up against the account of the fourth 
day's work. 

The remark is often heard, how laughable, absurd, 
and insufferably puerile it is, that the record should 
represent the sun to have originated on the fourth 
day, while light, which as every child knows, can 
proceed alone from the influence of the sun, should 
have been already created on the first clay. 

One scarcely knows whether to be provoked at the 
inconsiderateness shown in such an argument, to 



428 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

laugh at its utter shallowness, or to commiserate the 
pitiable mental condition of those who make use 
of it, 

For assuredly only the most unbecoming and in- 
excusable want of consideration, or the narrowest 
mental capacit} 7 alone, can account for the circum- 
stance that the author of the record of the creation 
should be imagined so stupid and shallow, that, had 
his communications been but the offspring of his own 
speculations and fancies, he should not have known 
that it was the sun which now gave to the earth its 
light and shade, its morning and its evening. ~No 
less unaccountable would it be, otherwise, that any 
one could imagine he should (as he subsequently, 
verse 16 seqq., expressly mentions the office of the 
sun to be to give light upon the earth,) have forgotten 
this fact, and speculated in the face of it. And he 
a man, too, profoundly wise and acute, just in the 
measure that his communications are confined to the 
wisdom of his own mind ! 

The difficulty here is not that the author does not 
appear to know what is plain to every child of two 
years, but that being doubtless fully aware of the facts 
(v. 16-18), he should not hesitate to teach that a light 
which illuminated the earth, was created before the 
sun, — and not once to have thought of this difficulty, 
is ground enough upon which to convict his accusers 
of culpable want of consideration, or the most lamen- 
table shallowness of mind. 

But what shall be said to the fact that a mere 
glance at the page of a modern text-book in physics 
or astronomy, is sufficient to show us that the earth 



LIGHT BEFORE THE SUN. 429 

and probably the rest of the planets also, still pos- 
sess, since a permanent relation has been established 
between themselves and the sun, countless inherent 
sources of producing light; and that, just as the 
Bible says, the sun is not a light, but a bearer of light, 
a body which excites and developes light, and the 
like ? And should we not rather, instead of seeking 
excuse for the stupidity of the author, who pretends 
to be a divinely-illumined Prophet, try to understand 
how it has happened that he should have uncon- 
sciously and undesignedly, obtained profound views 
into the nature and modes of light, such as have for 
thousands of years escaped the acute and untiring 
investigations of the physicist ; that he in immediate 
prophetic contemplation should have anticipated the 
profound and happy investigations of modern days, 
in regard to the nature of light ? 

We may here add for further consideration, in ad- 
dition to what we have already (Chapter 5, § 1.) 
gathered concerning the nature of light, and its de- 
velopment through the influence of the sun upon the 
planets, as well as through an independent agency 
belonging to the planets themselves, a passage from 
Humboldt's Cosmos (I. 207), where he speaks of the 
northern light : " This phenomenon derives most of 
its importance from the fact, that the earth becomes 
self-luminous , and that in the capacity of a planet, 
besides the light which it receives from the central 
body, the sun, it shows itself capable, in itself, of 
developing light. The intensity of the terrestrial light 
exceeds somewhat, in cases of the brightest colored 
radiation toward the zenith, the light of the moon 



430 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

in its first quarter. Occasionally printed characters 
have been read by this light, without difficulty. This 
almost uninterrupted terrestrial development of light 
in the polar regions of the earth, leads us to the in- 
teresting phenomenon presented by Venus. The 
portion of this planet which is not illumined by the 
sun, often shines with a phosporescent light of its 
own. It is not improbable that the moon, Jupiter, 
and the comets, shine with a light of their own, in 
addition to reflected solar light, noticeable as such 
through the polariscope. "Without speaking of the 
problematical but very common species of cloud- 
lightniug, in which a heavy, lowering cloud may be 
seen to shine with an uninterrupted flickering light, 
for many minutes together, we still meet with other 
instances of terrestrial development of light in our at- 
mosphere." A. Wagner adds: " The northern light 
being an intermitting phenomenon, and exhibiting 
to us a change from light to darkness independent of 
the sun, we may find in it an analogy to a similar 
change occurring upon the earth before the creation 
of the sun." And Schubert says (Weltgeb. p. 218): 
"May not that polar-light, which is called an aurora 
of the north, be the last glimmering light of a de- 
parted age of the world, in which the whole earth 
was enclosed in an expanse of serial fluid, from which, 
through the agency of the electro-magnetic forces, 
streamed forth an incomparably greater degree of 
light, accompanied at the same time with animating 
warmth, almost in a similar mode to what still oc- 
curs in the luminous atmosphere of our sun ? " 
Let us not, however, be understood from the fore- 



LIGHT BEFOKE THE SUN. 481 

going, to assert that that light which, according to 
the Mosaic account, was created before the sun was 
formed to serve the earth in the capacity it now does, 
was a northern light, or even merely a phenomenon 
related to the northern light. No : we desire only to 
show that even yet, since the establishment of the 
relation which now exists between the sun and the 
earth, the latter still possesses in itself a capacity of 
developing light ; and that there is nothing to pre- 
vent us from ascribing to it 'prior to that point of 
time, the same capacity in a degree much greater 
and vastly more magnificent and effective. 

It is not pretended that those inherent powers of 
producing light which manifest themselves in the 
earth, are either numerous enough or strong enough 
to develop a light wholly equal to that of the three 
first days, which appears to have been strong enough 
for the origination of the vegetable kingdom of the 
third day. Consequently, it must be assumed that 
the first and provisional production of light, was 
essentially the same as that which is now brought 
about through the influence of the sun upon the 
earth. So long as the present existing relation 
between sun and planet was not yet ordained and 
established, the powers of exciting light, which ever 
since have belonged to the sun, may have dwelt in 
the planetary bodies themselves also, producing very 
much their proper and corresponding effects. Not 
until the fourth epoch of development, when the 
bodies of our system had progressed so far in their 
individual development, that a positive and perma- 
nent relation could be established between them, 



432 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

was it possible that the polar opposition between sun 
and planet should discover itself, in which the sun, 
perhaps on account of the preponderance of its mass 
and gravity, summoned to itself and retained the 
powers of developing light. 

The facts of astronomy appear very well to har- 
monize with this view, as the body of the sun itself 
is found to be dark, and of a planetary nature, and its 
light-producing power, to dwell in the photosphere 
which surrounds it. Not the creation and fashion- 
ing of the body of the sun, but the formation of this 
photosphere, or the concentration about the planet- 
ary sphere, of the previously-created but heretofore 
diffused agency for the production of light, probably 
marked the point of progress attained on the fourth 
day. 

§ 5. The Creation of the Fixed Stars before the Earth, 

A fresh objection is founded upon the alleged 
representation of the Hexsemeron, that all the starry 
worlds should have been first created on the fourth 
day, subsequently to the complete formation of the 
earth. It is in itself unreasonable, it is said, that we 
should ascribe priority in time to the earth, which is 
but a subordinate member of the solar system, in 
preference to the sun which rules both the earth and 
all its brother and sister planets. But this Biblical 
representation in regard to the fixed stars amounts 
to an absurdity, when viewed in the light of modern 
astronomy, especially when it is taken in connection 
with the chronology of the Bible. The earth to 
have been created before the fixed stars ! and still it 



FIXED STARS BEFORE THE EARTH. 433 

not in existence some six thousand years ago ! But 
does not astronomy teach that the stars nearest our 
system could not be seen within less than from eight 
to twelve years after their creation ? and stars of the 
twelfth magnitude not within less than 4000 years ! 
Consequently, then, the starry masses of the Milky- 
"Way scarcely resolvable or wholly incapable of reso- 
lution by the best telescopes, and the nebulae, must 
have been created thousand upon thousands, yea, 
perhaps millions of* years before their light could 
have reached the regions of space traversed by our 
earth, (comp. chap. 5, § 6, 13.) But, instead of their 
light having just now become visible upon the earth, 
has it not even as far back as human recollection 
extends, shone in just the same measure it does now ? 

We shall not open our defence of the Biblical 
cosmology or chronology by attempting to combat 
these dicta of astronomy, although it is by no means 
so certain that a ray of light, which in the ether of 
our planetary system is limited to a motion of merely 
192,000 miles "in a whole long second," is every- 
where in the universe confined to the same " snail's 
pace." For, even could we make up our mind to 
undergo the disagreeable necessity of having to 
claim a ten, a hundred, or perhaps even a thousand- 
fold greater velocity for light in the supra-planetary 
regions of space, still the idea that the earth was 
really created before the fixed stars, would meet with 
many other not less formidable difficulties. 

Let us rather take the assertions of astronomy 
without any hesitation, leaving it to that science 
itself, whose office it is, to establish or combat all 
37 



434 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

possible doubts which may arise as to the correctness 
of these assertions. Let us here also see if we may 
rather seek the cause of the pretended contradiction, 
in an erroneous apprehension of the Biblical account, 
than in the errors of astronomical science. We have 
already found (chap. 4, § 8), as the result of an exe- 
gesis made without prepossession, that the Mosaic 
account of the creation confines itself exclusively to 
the earth and its appurtenances ; that it is only from 
this point of view and from this motive that the sun, 
the moon, and the stars, are included in the repre- 
sentation of Sacred Writ ; and that the latter does 
not treat of their creation as such, but merely of the 
creative influence by which they became what they 
were to be in their relation to the earth. But whether 
these two points, which in itself is a thing not at all 
impossible, were identical in point of time, or diverse, 
was a question which had to remain undetermined 
in the interpretation of the record. 

But that which is left undetermined in the Mosaic 
history of the creation, is placed beyond all doubt at 
a later stage of revelation. The Book of Job, for 
example, as we have already seen (chap. 5, § 17), 
puts the assertion in the mouth of God himself, 
that the stars were present as admiring witnesses 
and jubilant spectators, when the foundations of the 
earth were laid. If, therefore, the Biblical view 
touching this point be asked for, it must be main- 
, tained that priority in time in the stars over the earth, 
is a veritable and clearly expressed point in the 
Sacred record, and that the Bible and Astronomy 
here at least strikingly coincide. The Bible refers 






FIXED STARS BEFORE THE EARTH. 435 

us clearly enough, both in the passage mentioned, 
and also by many other hints and indications, to 
which we have already in the fourth chapter given 
sufficient attention, to a two-fold creation, in which 
the creation or rather the new-creation of the earth, 
takes the second place in point of time, against which 
astronomy will assuredly find nothing to object. 1 

1 A point distantly related to our object in connection with 
the above question, may here be presented in the words of a 
celebrated French investigator in the domain of nature. Marcel 
de Sevres says, in his work de la creation de la terre et des 
corps celestes, Paris, 1843, p. 17 : " S'il n'y avait eu qu'une 
seule creation, on devrait voir chaque annee, presque chaque 
jour, apparaitre de nouvelles nebuleuses au milieu de la voie 
lactee. L'observation est loin de confirmer cette continuelle 
apparition, et qui prouve, que cette derniere supposition est tout 
a, fait gratuite. Le nombre de ces nebuleuses ne s'aceroit que 
par la puissance des telescopes ou des lunettes, que les astronomes 
emploient pour les decouvrir au milieu de Fimmensite de Fespace. 
Du reste, si cette hypothese, tout a fait contraire au systeme d'une 
creation primitive et d'une organisation posterieure des corps 
celestes qui en aurait ete Fobjet, etait exacte, le spectacle que le 
ciel aurait presents aux premiers &ges du monde, a Adam et a 
ses descendants, aurait &t& aussi extraordinaire que singulier. 
Le premier homme n'aurait pas vu, lors de sa venue sur la terre, 
une seule etoile au ciel ; le soleil, la lune et les planetes auraient 
&te les seules astres, qu'il y auraient apperc,us et dont il aurait 
joui pendant les premieres six annees. Au dela de cette epoque, 
les tstoiles auraient commence a apparaitre successivement et 
dans un ordre inverse de leur distance a la terre. La voie lactee 
n'aurait done presente Faspect, qu'elle offre actuellement qu'au 
dela d'un certain nombres de siecles. Enfin aujourd'hui encore 
des etoiles et des nebuleuses devraient se montrer pour la pre- 
miere fois dans le ciel. II faut Favouer, de pareilles consequences 
sont tout a fait inadmissibles ; des lors on est en droit de rejeter 
la supposition qui y a donne lieu. La creation des 6toiles et des 
nebuleuses a done precede la creation de Fhomme actuel d'un 



436 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

As it has further been objected, that it is taking a 
very narrow view, and one unworthy of Divine reve- 
lation, for the Mosaic record to represent the stars as 
having been created merely for the purpose of casting 
their scanty, nickering light amid the thick darkness 
of the earth, it may be well for us to observe that the 
complaint is chargeable to an interpolated "merely" 
of which the record is wholly innocent. It is doing 
unpardonable violence to the author's meaning to 
maintain, in the face of the unequivocal design of the 
record to mention only that which was of signi- 
ficance to the earth, that he really did believe all the 
starry worlds were created for no other purpose than 
to give light to the earth and adorn its nights. But 
if any one seriously maintain that such a purpose 
would be too insignificant and unimportant to claim 
notice in the Biblical geogony, we would merely in- 
quire of him, if the thought has never yet suggested 
itself to him, when gazing on the splendor of the 
nocturnal heavens, how much of comfort and delight 
we poor inhabitants of the earth owe to the mere 
outward manifestation of these celestial bodies. 

§ 6. The Creation of the Planetary System. 

It is further said, that the connection of all the 
planets of our solar system, as well as the similarity 

grand nombres de siecles. On est ainsi amene\ comme forc6ment, 
a admettre deux epoques bien distinctes dans la creation : la pre- 
miere ou la plus ancienne est celle ail Pensemble des corps celes- 
tes est sorti du neant a la voix du Createur ; la seconde, bien pos- 
terieure, serait celle ou le soleil, les planetes et particulierement 
la terre ont rec,u leur organisation definitive et sont parvenus h. 
leur etat act-uel." 



CREATION OF PLANETARY SYSTEM. 437 

of their physical constitution and their reference to 
the sun, points unmistakably to the fact that their 
origin was a common one, both with respect to the 
matter out of which they were formed, and also to 
the time when they were individualized and finished. 
This we readily admit. But when it is further argued, 
that this supposition is neither acknowledged nor 
allowed by the Mosaic history of the creation ; and 
that the latter here speaks of the formation of the 
earth, and there of the formation of the sun, moon, 
and stars, as though wholly independent of each 
other, the earth being completed and furnished with 
its .mountains and valleys, continents and oceans, be- 
fore the others were made — when all this is done, 
we must enter our most decided protest. The object 
of the record, Gen. 1., is to convey to our minds 
merely an account of the process through which the 
earth arrived at its present state, to tell us how it was 
prepared as a place of abode and activity for man. 
The sun, moon, and stars, are first mentioned in it, 
where they begin to play a part in the history of the 
gradually improving earth ; and claim attention 
merely in so far as they do this. The record was 
not designed to tell, neither could it or should it 
have told, whether the earth, the sun, the rest of the 
planets, and the satellites, were formed out of the 
same original matter, nor any more, whether the 
individualization of these various bodies was simul- 
taneous, their individual completion being subse- 
quently effected side by side. That such was the case 
seems at least probable, in the light of astronomy. 
With respect to the view to be drawn from astro- 
37* 



438 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

nomical investigations and reasonings, touching the 
probable mode of origin of the planetary system, and 
the bearing of this mode on the Biblical account of 
the creation, we shall recur to what has already been 
said on this subject, in chapter 5, § 5, for further 
elucidation of the question. It was there discovered, 
that astronomy itself is wholly unable to say any- 
thing on the subject; and that all theories which 
speculation has built up on the grounds of astrono- 
mical observation, or may yet build up,, lack any 
solid or satisfactory foundation. 

Still, however, we have regarded it as not out of 
place to devote a note to the theory of Laplace, the 
most plausible and interesting of these theories; and 
a word or two may be added in regard to the ques- 
tion whether, granting the correctness of this theory, 
something neither yet proven nor capable of proof, 
it may be harmonized with the 1st chapter of Genesis. 

It will, however, be immediately discovered, on a 
mere hasty comparison of the two, that the Bible 
leaves room enough for this, as for all similar theories, 
and conversely, that no such theories can in a single 
point contradict the teachings of the Biblical record; 
for the Bible never enters upon the question whether 
the bodies of our system were formed out of the 
same common original matter, and if so, how their 
formation was effected ; but rather, at first mention J 
represents them as proceeding forth from the hand 
of their Creator as worlds already individualized. 2 

1 Genesis 1 : 1. 

2 G. H. v. Schubert, proceeding to carry out the view deduced 
from Scripture, that the domain of the world to which our earth 



CELESTIAL WORLDS INHABITED. 439 

§ 7. The Celestial Worlds in general Inhabited. 

Intimately connected with, the above-mentioned 
pretext, that the Bible, in opposition to all sound hu- 
man reason, should teach that the sun, the moon, 
and the stars have no significance in any other direc- 

belongs was the scene of a history of the most comprehensive re- 
lations and important consequences, prior to the creation of man 
(comp. chap. 4, \ 20 25), concludes (Weltgeb. 559-565) that pro- 
bably in this, the first great period of its existence, this domain 
of the universe may have been represented by a single and unique 
astral formation, which only since the catastrophe which brought 
the history of this period to an end — or rather, upon that second 
creation which prepared it for a new and no less important and 
influential phase of history — was separated into different indi- 
vidual bodies, but connected and harmoniously adjusted into one 
complete system. He imagines that it was similar in the first 
period of its existence, to the planetary nebulae with a dense nu- 
cleus, the photospheres of which extend themselves to the circum- 
ference of millions, yea, billions of miles (chap. 5, § 13). " Such 
an astral photosphere may have contained a fulness of elements 
sufficient for the formation of altogether other worlds than our 
small earth ; for had it the size of even the smallest planetary 
nebulas revealed to us as such by the telescope, it must fill a much 
greater space than does our present solar system, including the 

orbits of all its planets and comets It is to be supposed 

that the primeval photosphere of the earth was also the special 
abode, not only of the forces of the electro-magnetic species, but 
of the higher primary forces of life, with corresponding forms and 
movements It gives light and warmth to the nucleus be- 
neath it ; it is the more essential part of the star. The star itself, 
as the inner solid mass of a planet, does indeed form the support- 
ing centre, binding the lighter substance of the envelope or photo- 
sphere to itself, by the force of its gravity : but this envelope is 
related to the nucleus, as the surface of the planet, upon which 
alone organic life dwells and flourishes, is to the inorganic basis 
upon which it rests The sacred record speaks primarily 



440 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

tion, and no office, but to give light to the earth, 
there is to be found another objection. Such a view, 
it is said, would do away with the supposition that 
the rest of the celestial bodies are inhabited by rea- 
sonable, spiritual beings, endowed with existence for 
their own sakes. The Biblical theory of the world, 
it is maintaned, is so narrow and inadequate as to 

of the days' works in that new creation of things, in which man 
appears as the last and highest creation, on the eve of the Sab- 
bath. The measure of time first begins with him and his history; 
the succession of years is first introduced by the formation of the 
sun and a heaven of planets from the primeval photosphere belong- 
ing to our domain of the universe. As to the history of the prin- 
cipality and powers of the preceding period, and their influence 
upon those works which were preparatory to the decree of the fur- 
ther future, that shall never be taught in time, nor understood in 
time." — "We have nothing to object against this view, yet think 
we are justified in pointing to other formations of the astral hea- 
vens which perhaps may with equally good reason be regarded as 
analogies to the original condition of our domain of the universe. 
"We refer to the closely-connected and related families of the double 
and multiple stars (chap. 5, \ 11), or even to the presence of dark, 
extinguished bodies (chap. 5, § 12) involved in the orbits of resplen- 
dent suns, as seems so probable from the indications of the latest 
astronomical observations. Perhaps this region of the world was 
originally represented by such a closely-related family of different 
individuals, whose primeval harmony and glory were destroyed 
by some great catastrophe, and restored again in another and pe- 
culiar manner through the new creation of the six days ; or per- 
haps it was occupied by a double star, one member of which was 
destroyed and broken up by that catastrophe, thus furnishing the 
substance for the formation of the planets and comets of our sys- 
tem, the relation of which to the sun was again established in a 
peculiar manner on the fourth day of the Hexaemeron. — The 
Scriptures are silent here, leaving the widest room to the play of 
conjecture. 



CELESTIAL WORLDS INHABITED. 441 

represent the earth only as inhabited ; life and activ- 
ity, history and development, here only to manifest 
themselves ; while assuredly the simplest common 
sense forces upon us the irresistible conviction, that 
the countless celestial worlds, some of which, as may 
be shown, possess a like nature and a like cosmical 
position and importance with the globe we inhabit, 
but by far the most of which infinitely surpass our 
poor earth in outward extent, as well as in inner 
significance, in glory and dignity, must also in the 
same degree be the theatre of like and infinitely 
higher manifestations of created life and activity. 

But this objection is completely overthrown by an 
acknowledgment of the fact, that the Bible, while it 
does indeed regard the stars as dispensers of light to 
the earth, does by no means exclude the idea that 
they may, in themselves, be objects of infinitely 
higher significance and design than the earth. 

We find our minds somehow deeply possessed of 
the idea, that wherever there are worlds there is to 
be found a proper place for the life and activity of 
spiritual beings ; and neither faith nor philosophy, 
when not led astray by narrow or false views of 
Scripture, or blinded by a Pantheistic deification of 
the human mind, will find itself able to imagine the 
countless hosts of the celestial worlds as wholly un- 
inhabited. It is to sound human reason we owe this 
lesson — not to astronomy, which with the greatest 
extension and closeness of its observations, will in 
all probability never be able to discern the evidences 
of created life in the moon even, the nearest of the 
celestial bodies ; and hence cannot claim the right to 



442 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

say a word as to whether the stars are inhabited or 
not. We may seek to prop up so meagre a theory 
of the world as the one we oppose, with any number 
of analogies ; we may take for example, if you 
choose, the favorite one of a royal saloon, with its 
thousand brilliant lights and profusion of costly 
articles, not of immediate service, but merely used 
to set off the glory and majesty of the king; still this 
as all other pseudo-analogies will have no effect upon 
the mind uncultivated perhaps, but possessed of com- 
mon sense and unprejudiced, upon the creed that 
grows out of the depths of faith and reason. 

It is one and the same God who sits enthroned in 
the heavens and displays His omnipotence and omni- 
presence here upon the earth ; a God who upholds 
all the systems of worlds, and sustains the mote in 
a sunbeam ; a God of life, who everywhere that the 
tread of his foot is seen, or his breath felt, calls forth 
an abundance of life. If it be true that our poor 
earth is inhabited, from man who walks with counte- 
nance erect, to the veriest worm of the dust ; that a 
drop of water, a grain of sand, or a leaf of the forest, 
contains a whole world of living beings — if it be 
true that the whole restless sea of living organisms 
which manifests itself in millions of varied forms 
upon the earth, finds its unique completion and end 
only in that being endowed with reason and the capa- 
city to know and praise his Creator, in man alone, a 
mediator between it and Him for whose glory it was 
created — how can it be that yonder starry choirs 
should be devoid of life, that we should not there 
expect to find fresh domains of life and spiritual 






ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 443 

movement, self-conscious and free creatures, endowed 
with capacities to know, to praise, and to adore their 
Creator ? 

It is untrue that the Bible excludes the supposition, 
that the stars, too, are inhabited by corresponding 
personal beings, — yea, even more than that, it even 
contains, as we have already seen (chap. 4, § 23), de- 
terminate and almost unmistakable references to the 
fact, at least positive intimations, that the celestial 
spheres 1 are really inhabited. The Scriptures regard 
the heavens, and of course, all the single worlds 
which help to make np the heavens, as the abode 
of countless hosts of spiritual creatures, called in 
general terms, angels, and represented as the messen- 
gers and servants of God, as those who execute his 
will and join in anthems of praise and adoration to 
the glory and majesty of Deity. And in one passage 
at least, 2 these holy and blessed spirits of the celes- 
tial regions are placed in such close relation not to 
the heavens in general, but to the concrete, individual 
celestial worlds, that our view of the matter as here- 
tofore expressed, that the angels inhabit these worlds, 
seems fully justified. 

§ 8. The Angels as the Inhabitants of the Fixed Stars. 

Astronomy does not and cannot teach us any thing 
concerning the nature and destiny of the spiritual 

1 We speak primarily of the heavens of the fixed stars only. 
Much more difficult and doubtful is the question, hereafter to be 
considered, whether we are to imagine the rest of the bodies of 
our solar system inhabited, and if so, by what species of beings ? 
(Comp. I 10). 

2 Job 38. 



444 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

inhabitants of the stars, as predicated upon the general 
grounds of philosophico-religious reasonings ; while 
it opens to us a few glances into the physical consti- 
tution of these bodies, however incomplete and mea- 
gre these may be. The Bible, on the other hand, was 
designed only and is able only to teach us religious 
truth ; but nothing touching the nature and consti- 
tution of the stars. But still it does contain intima- 
tions which Lead ua fairly to the supposition, that 
these very stars of the firmament are the abodes of 
the angels. Harmony or conflict between the Bible 
and astronomy, can therefore, on this point, depend 
alone upon the agreement or non-agreement of the 
physical constitution of the stars, as taught us, or 
rather (vaguely enough) conjectured by astronomy, 
with the nature of the angels as represented in the 
Scriptures — upon the fitness or unfitness of the ma- 
terial abode for the spirit which is to inhabit it. 

Since astronomy, enriched by the magnificent in- 
vestigations and views of Herschel, has entered upon 
a new and healthful path of development, it has left 
behind those old and narrow hypotheses of a mono- 
tonous repetition in all regions, of the order and 
arrangement which obtain amidst the bodies com- 
posing our solar system, and of the reproduction 
everywhere of a physical constitution similar to that 
impressed upon this system. 

The constitution of nature i3 wholly different in 
the celestial worlds, and the latter bear different and 
higher relations toward each other — hence the beings 
which inhabit these worlds must be of a different 
species, and altogether differently constituted, and 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 445 

must possess a different calling and destiny, different 
capacities and duties from ours. 

Modern astronomical results have not indeed 
shown it to be strictly impossible, but still, improba- 
ble, that the glowing worlds of the fixed stars should 
be suns precisely like the sun of our system, having 
like it dark, solid, planetary central bodies, and being 
accompanied by secondary bodies dependent npon 
them for light and heat. They too, indeed, have — 
at least some of them — their faithful companions ; 
but the association there involved is not conditioned 
by the despotic sway of mere physical force, but 
through the bonds of close affinity and mutual sym- 
pathy ; not through subordination, but rather through 
co-ordination; for there we behold as it were, suns 
circling about suns, one glorious sphere about an- 
other, its equal in kind and prerogative, however 
different in brilliancy or extent. To all appearance 
there does not there exist that physically opposite, 
or sexual character, as it might be called, of the 
world's organism, which here manifests itself in the 
contrast between the solar and the planetary princi- 
ple, as that which on the one hand excites and im- 
parts, and on the other is excited and receives. "We 
there no longer find that marked characteristic of 
mass and of gravity which here rules and bears sway : 
nor do we there observe that alternation of light and 
darkness we here experience ; there is then no night 
to break in upon the life and activity of those spheres, 
nor frost nor winter to benumb their energies. 

But, although those celestial worlds are not posses- 
sed of those coarse, material characteristics which 
38 



446 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

everywhere meet our eyes here below, it by no means 
follows that they are immaterial : although the con- 
test and the change which are here carried on between 
light and darkness, do not extend into those regions, 
it does not hence follow that light there fails of a 
corresponding substance to which it may attach 
itself, and thus arrive at a fixed character and full 
intensity. There materiality is merely not limited 
to the characteristics of passive, dead matter only ; 
and light and darkness are not there hostile to each 
other, but rather, like the body and the soul, pervade 
each other in a true and complete union. "We may 
appeal to the fact that even in the single, but espe- 
cially in the double stars, a province of colors dis- 
plays itself, "rivaling in beauty and variety the 
flowers of spring, or the wings of the butterfly." 
Color is light manifesting itself through darkness, 
and thus attaining a determinate quality and in- 
tensity of brilliancy : it is a vital union of the two. 
"AVhile in our planetary system," says a profound 
thinker, 1 "sun and planet — light and darkness — as 
such, are distinct and separate, abstracted from each 
other, forming a totality in a mere outward respect, 
they are in the celestial regions intimately united 
and pervaded by each other. . . . Thus does each 
part become the whole, and yet remain on the whole." 
Here harmonious unity resolves itself into conflict- 
ing contrasts : night contends with day, light with 
darkness, heat with cold, death with life, and the body 
with the soul. But there all contrasts are reconciled : 

1 C. Fr. Goschel, Unterhaltungen zur Scliilderiing GcetJiescTier 
Venk- und DicJiticeise, vol. 3, p. 192, Schlesingen, 1838. 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 447 

light and shade, day and night, are intimately united; 
the one shining through the other, the soul animating 
the body. There we find no alternation of light and 
darkness : a million suns at the same time shed forth 
the radiant light of an eternal day, yet so mildly as 
to avoid excess of heat no less than destructive cold. 
The dark material structure is pervaded and ani- 
mated by a higher breath of life, and the latter 
through a most real and intimate union with the 
former attains a concrete manifestation, a vital exist- 
ence, a harmonic fulness and entireness. For every- 
thing living and real is "unity amid diversity, union 
of soul and body. Light becomes color through the 
medium of darkness only, so also the soul manifests 
its active presence through the medium of the body 
only. The fruit of like and like is a dead produc- 
tion : where like and unlike resolve into one, there 
a sweet sound is produced." 1 

If, therefore, the worlds there, instead of carrying 
heavily through their orbits, such a coarse and crude 
materiality as belongs to the bodies of our system, 
possess a physical structure infinitely refined, light, 
and glorious, and hence pursue their silent and ma- 
jestic courses with signal freedom, lightness and 
ease, "the restless and ceaseless workings and 
counter-workings of our powers of attraction and 
repulsion, which cause such painful swayings to and 
fro between friendship and hostility amid the pon- 
derous bodies of the solar system, must certainly find 
no counterpart among those celestial worlds." Here, 
in the cosmical domain we inhabit, the laws of grav- 

1 Goschel, p. 192. 



448 CONFLICT AXD HARMONY. 

ity bear iron rule : the force of gravitation is an 
outward, despotic power, and the bodies of the sys- 
tem are held together by it alone : without it, they 
would fall to pieces and become utterly demolished. 
The same law, indeed, obtains among the celestial 
worlds ; but love, which also in this respect may be 
regarded as the fulfilling of the law, shuts out slavish 
fear. The effect is the same, but the cause is differ- 
ent. The categoric imperative of physical force 
exacts not a slavish obedience, but a higher will, in 
which freedom and necessity have become one, calls 
forth similar effects, in nobler form and higher 
potency. But still, other forces also may there mani- 
fest themselves, as not impossibly the magic forces 
of the electro-magnetic species, which with the rapid- 
ity of thought traverse the entire earth ; but in an 
inconceivably more imposing manner and greater 
degree, and with consequences vastly more magni- 
ficent and glorious. Hence "we there behold one 
sun fraternally linked to another, and hosts of glori- 
ous worlds peacefully pursuing their courses, held 
together by the bonds of a higher relationship than 
those which here impel one ponderous rock upon 
another, with crushing force." 1 Mysterious bonds 
of sympathy and secret affinity must indeed bind 
those worlds together, where " gravity is no longer 
the tendency of each individual to seek in some other 
material structure the central point wanting in itself, 
but the free impulse which centralizes all siugle 
bodies, all single central points with each other in 
the highest centre." 2 

1 Schubert, Weltgeb., p. 85. 2 Goschel, p. 192. 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 449 

There move on in familiar intercourse and associa- 
tion, thousands, yea, millions of celestial worlds ; 
here are immense, immeasurable wastes, empty celes- 
tial spaces, insusceptible of the illuminating, heating, 
or animating influence of light, and filled only with 
the blackest night. There the spaces between the 
different worlds are filled up with intervening ne- 
bulas, the channels and highways, as it were, of a 
communication to be carried on with the speed of a 
celestial electricity ; here are impassable and all- 
devouring gulphs; there familiar and gladsome inter- 
course ; here separation, distance, and non-inter- 
course. What a plenitude of life, and what an 
energy of its allotted functions, must there unfold 
itself, where worlds are so wondrously crowded to- 
gether, hold such lively intercourse, and exert such 
varied reciprocal influences ; while at the same time 
the particular agencies of any individual world, are 
excited and strengthened by the constant influence 
of countless kindred worlds ! And what a variety 
of formations, what a rich abundance of forms, trans- 
formations and renewals are indicated by the incon- 
ceivable expansions and contractions of those lumin- 
ous cosmical masses, their volitalization as well as 
their condensation; by the variation in the light and 
brilliancy of the stars, as well as the reciprocal rela- 
tions of their colors : truly, a mobility and freshness 
of life of which we, with the ideas of slowness of 
motion, weight, and vis inertias we ever attach to 
material bodies, can form but a very inadequate con- 
ception ! And whilst most of the changes and revo- 
38* 



450 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

lutions which occur here upon the earth, are dis- 
astrous, and followed by suffering, tears, and distress, 
the revolutions there experienced must take place so 
gently and peaceably, that " to the countless myriads 
of eyes which near at hand behold them, and carry 
on their functions in the midst of them, they must 
be despoiled of all those terrors they would have in 
this terrestrial sphere, and cost no tears of sorrow, but 
rather, if weeping be possible there, tears of joy." 1 

But what, then, are we to imagine the inhabitants 
of such worlds to be ? If the principle be well- 
founded, that there exists everywhere throughout the 
sphere of the created, the same connection between 
abode and inhabitant, as between body and soul, 
then can astronomy throw much light on this ques- 
tion. The physical world we inhabit speaks every- 
where, as well in small as in great things, of bless- 
ing and cursing, of love and hatred, of sorrow and 
joy, of longings and hopings ; and a deep response to 
its tones is wakened within our own breasts, as we 
feel that nature around us is adapted to us and we to 
it. But in those worlds we seek in vain for the 
ominous shadows of sin and death ; there we behold 
light without its antagonistic darkness, life without 
death, harmony without strife and discord, day with- 
out night, and waking without sleeping. Hence they 
must be the abodes of such beings as are altogether 
unacquained with sin and death in themselves, and 
having natures not requiring the alternation of light 
and darkness, of day and night, nor visited by the 

1 Schubert, Urwelt, p. 108. 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 451 

cruel changes of heat and cold we here experience. 
Life, which here displays the opposite poles of gene- 
ration and corruption, birth and death, is there unity 
and fulness. There the sexual contrast, the opposi- 
tion of the solar and planetary principles, the con- 
trast of that which excites and that which is excited, 
is done away with ; and hence it is there we may 
expect to find the exalted sphere, where they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage. 1 And as in those 
worlds the planetary "flesh-and-blood structure" of 
the dark and crude earth, is quickened and illumi- 
nated, rendered clear and glorious, as instead of 
physical inertia and constancy of form, we behold 
the greatest aptitude for rapid movement and the 
assumption of new forms ; so also must we deny the 
inhabitants of those worlds bodies of an opaque, 
flesh-and-blood character, such as that by which our 
corporeal frames are hopelessly confined to the surface 
of the earth, and the soaring flight of our thoughts so 
oppressed and crippled, and ascribe to them a refined, 
ethereal, and infinitely mobile corporeity, capable of 
renewal and rejuvenation, ever the willing servant 
of the indwelling spirit, and adequate to all the 
wants and exigencies of spiritual life. 

But such holy inhabitants of light are revealed to 
us in the Scriptures, under the name of angels, and 
are placed by them in manifold relation to the celes- 
tial worlds, so that here science significantly coincides 
with faith. 

1 Matt. 22 : 30. 



452 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

§ 9. Continuation. 

"We shall yet notice a few objections against identi- 
fying the fixed stars with the abodes of the angels, 
which might possibly be urged, as well from the 
Bible as from the astronomical stand-point. 

And first of all, it might appear that the almost 
infinite distance, according to our rules of measure- 
ment, of the stars from the earth — a distance which 
a ray of light requires ten, one hundred, or a thou- 
sand years to traverse (chap. 5, § 6) — would be but 
little in harmony with such a supposition. For this 
immense distance seems to accord unsatisfactorily 
with the Biblical teachings in regard to the frequent 
influential presence of the angels upon the earth, 
since they are represented as appearing not only at 
the grand crisis of the development of the kingdom 
of grace, but also at all times necessary for the aid 
and protection of the children of the kingdom. 

It is clear, however, that such an objection is of 
any weight, imly so long as we attribute the limited 
conditions of our terrestrial sphere of life, to the life 
and activity of the angels, something we are by no 
means justified in doing. There are here, even in 
the sphere of sublunar physical agencies, and within 
the compass of our own knowledge and experience, 
velocities with which the velocity of light itself can 
bear no comparison. In the electric telegraph we 
see an all-pervading physical agent emplo} 7 ed as the 
messenger of the mind, with a velocity of movement 
which is not capable of measurement in our longest 
distances. And the rapidity with which the influence 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 453 

of gravity passes and repasses from one celestial 
sphere to another, must, " according to very fair and 
reasonable deductions, be at least 10 million times 
greater than the velocity of light." 1 All these velo- 
cities, however, are still mocked by the flight of 
thought, of the mind. True, our corporeal forms can- 
not begin to keep pace with that ; but shall not the 
body, in those spheres where nature is refined and 
rendered glorious, and in those holy beings which 
are by way of pre-eminence termed spirits, obey and 
carry out the will of the mind? 2 And shall not 
those privileged beings be able, with the rapidity of 
thought and without dispensing with their bodies, to 
transport themselves whithersoever duty may call ? 

Again, it may be objected, that the diversity of 
formations amid the starry worlds of the firmament, 
of which modern astronomy has enabled us to catch 
some significant glimpses, cannot be regarded as in 
harmony with the generic unity of the nature, the 
existence, and the calling of the angels, as represented 
in the scriptural doctrine of those beings. Two 
things, however, must be overlooked in offering such 
an objection. First, that the Scriptures beyond doubt 
comprehend and point out within this generic unity, 
great specific differences between the several classes 
of angels, the existence of many grades of dignity, 
might, and the like, — and then, that where the angels 
are designated as a common and like whole, this ex- 
presses merely the general contrast and distinction 
between them and of man. But the contrast between 

1 Schubert, Urwelt, p. 18. 

2 Comp. J. P. Lange, Leben Jesu, II., 1, pp. 58, 59. 



454 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

the character of fixed stars and the planetary nature 
of the earth is great enough and thorough enough 
to accord with the contrast between angels and men. 

"We are well aware of the fact, that we have de- 
rived the foregoing proof of the correlation between 
angels and stars, in part from astronomical views 
which have by no means yet been proven undoubt- 
edly correct or fully admissible, and which may per- 
haps ever remain problematical. We may make 
special mention in this connection, of the view that 
the antagonistic relation of the solar and planetary 
principles, which here below so determines all cosmi- 
cal conditions, and imprints upon the system to which 
our earth belongs its peculiar character, should not 
have any existence in those distant regions of the 
universe. But such a difficulty can scarcely be sur- 
mounted, from the unavoidably problematical cha- 
racter of all perceptions and revelations coming from 
those extremely remote regions of creation. 

But supposing our views be not strictly and tho- 
roughly in accordance with the reality, supposing 
also that those glowing spheres be surrounded by 
planets, which, just like our earth, are dependent 
upon solar influences for light and heat, indispensable 
to their inhabitants, still the Bible contains not a 
word in opposition to the view that such planets may 
be inhabited by angels. Much rather, there still 
remain many peculiarities of physical structure which 
correspond to the characteristic distinction which 
obtains between angelic beings and the inhabitants 
of the earth. In the systems of the double and mul- 
tiple stars, at least, and the thickly-crowded clusters, 



ANGELS AND FIXED STARS. 455 

where thousands upon thousands of stars join in 
forming one system, such hypothetical planets would 
have to be, were they not to be hurled against each 
other or against their suns with destructive force, 
composed of a material so refined and so light, that 
even in them, as opposed to the earth, should be 
mirrored the contrast presented to the flesh-and- 
blood character of the human body, by the light, 
ethereal structure of angelic bodies. No less would 
such planets be the theatre of a constant and inex- 
haustible manifestation of light, from the simulta- 
neous influence of hundreds, yea, thousands of suns, 
and in this respect also might be the fitting abode 
of glorious angelic natures, the inhabitants of light. 
But what shall we say in the face of the discovery 
of Bessel (chap. 5, § 12), that, conversely, in the re- 
gions of the fixed stars, suns, and those the largest 
and most brilliant, revolve around bodies which are 
in all probability dark ? What shall we do with this 
discovery, in case the observations upon which it is 
founded be proved correct beyond a doubt ? where 
shall we find a proper place for it in our Biblical 
theory of the world ? We frankly admit we know 
not where ; but without yielding the principle that 
what is still a mystery from mere want of knowledge, 
is by no means proper evidence of the inadmissibility 
of what we do know. Meantime, we may console 
ourselves with the thought, that the friends of the 
purely astronomical theory of the world will find 
themselves in no less a dilemma in connection with 
this problem, should the physical fact be established. 
Besides, it may be remarked, that with all the reli- 



456 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

ance to be placed on BesseTs observations, and with 
all the corroboration they seem to have received from 
renewed observation in the same direction, the in- 
ferences drawn from them must ever retain a highly 
doubtful character. Just in the same measure that 
this doubtful phenomenon may be explained through 
a reversal of the existing solar and planetary rela- 
tions, in the face of all previous views and know r - 
ledge, it may assuredly be referred to agencies of 
life and movement in the celestial regions, of which 
we have here not the most distant knowledge. 

§ 10. Inhabitants of the extra-mundane Bodies of our 
Solar System. 

But what shall we say of the rest of the planets 
of our solar system, and of the sun itself ? Are we 
to suppose them also inhabited, and what might be 
the nature of such supposed inhabitants ? 

The Scriptures mention but the two species of 
self-conscious, personal, free, and spiritual creatures : 
angels and men. — We have already seen that there 
are physical grounds upon which to oppose the idea, 
that these bodies should be inhabited by human 
beings, with flesh and blood like ours; and further, 
that that the fundamental point in the Biblical theory 
of the world — the unity of the whole human race, 
and its derivation from one original pair — would be 
still less reconcilable with such a view. Are they, 
then, inhabited by some kind of angelic beings of a 
different nature, of different orders and grades from 
those which dwell upon the other starry worlds? 
We cannot adopt such a view, since thereby neither 






INHABITANTS OF THE PLANETS. 457 

the marked contrast between angels and men, nor 
the general oneness of calling and nature belonging 
to the angels, both matters expressly taught in Scrip- 
ture, would seem to be sufficiently regarded or ac- 
knowledged. For, notwithstanding the diversity 
in details presented to the earth, by the separate 
bodies belonging to our system, the similarity of 
their physical constitution and arrangements in 
general to those of our earth, is too great, on the 
one hand, and the contrast they in common with 
the earth present to the fixed stars, too strongly 
marked, on the other, that we should concede them 
to be inhabited by any sort of angelic beings. 

Or are we to imagine, as has been frequently inti- 
mated, that the souls of the departed dwell there ? 
The righteous upon the pleasant Mars, upon the bright 
and fair Venus, and the glorious Sun, perhaps ; and 
the souls of the unblest amid the dreary and stormy 
wastes of Jupiter, and in the dismal craters of the 
moon ? ] — Against any such opinion we are also 
bound to protest, as it seems to us, from the Biblical 
stand-point. It seems to us next thing to a mere 
groundless and fantastic chimera, to suppose that 
these bodies were intended to subserve no other pur- 
pose than to supply prison-houses for the dead of the 
earth, and should have been created for that distinct 
purpose, even before death was introduced and had 
become general through the sin of Adam. Such a 
view, at all events, is not in the least justified by the 

1 Comp. J. P. Lange, Land der Herrliclikeit, pp. 8, 9, and his 
Verm. Schr. II., p. 270 &eq., as also Tholuck's Stunden der An- 
dacJit, p. 549. 
39 



458 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

Scriptures. For the Bible never speaks of the 
locality of Scheol or Hades, as the place of the de- 
parted, in any other than the common usage of Scrip- 
ture ; and if we may ascribe to its expressions any 
agreement with the reality, the locality of Scheol 
should much rather be sought under the earth than 
in the heavens. 

Or, further, are we to suppose that those apostate 
spirits, which according to Holy Writ, are consigned 
to waste places, 1 and the barren regions of the air, 2 
dwell in those volcanic wastes and dungeons, or amid 
the darkness and tempests, the scorching blasts and 
severe cold of these bodies of our system? — Most 
probably not — if we follow the expressions and 
views of the Bible, which place the abodes of these 
evil beings, rather, in close proximity to the earth; 
amid the waste places, the darkness and the tempests 
of this sublunar world. For the expressions : igou<r/a 
<rov a£po£, — sv to~s iffoupav/ois, from the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, certainly refer primarily to the terrestrial 
atmosphere, even though a wider meaning may be 
ascribed to the latter of them. 

Or, finally, has that supposition the most proba- 
bilities in its favor, which regards those regions of 
creation, for the time at least, as devoid of reasonable 
beings — perhaps analogous to the regions of our 
earth uninhabited by man, if not by living creatures 
in general: its primeval forests, its uncultivated 
plains, and its wide seas, which none the less on this 
account are destined to be made arable and habitable 
by the hand of man, to serve his convenience, and 

l Matt, 12 : 43 ; Luke 11 : 24. 2 Eph. 2:2; 6 : 12. 



INHABITANTS OF THE PLANETS. 459 

are hereafter to be purified and renewed with the 
rest of the earth, and brought into a paradisiacal 
condition ? A similar disproportion between the 
earth's fitness for habitation and its actual occupa- 
tion, certainly existed for centuries before the first 
human pair, on the strength of the command, "Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," had 
peopled the whole earth, in ever-widening circles 
from their original dwelling-place. 

When we consider the close association and the 
physical relationship of all the members of our solar 
system, their organic connection, their complete and 
symmetrical unity, much that seems unacceptable in 
the above conjecture of the non-habitation of the 
planets, appears to vanish. For this unity in the 
organization and articulation of the whole solar sys- 
tem, seems to point clearly to unity of relation and 
destiny, and to condition and presuppose a history 
in unison, as regards its relations and bearings. 

Had man been true to his destiny, and in a godly, 
and hence, also, divinely-supported development, 
peopled the planet which was allotted him as an 
abode, from the spot which served as the cradle of 
the race to the outmost boundaries of the globe, per- 
haps, as may at least be conceived, his destiny would 
have been extended to those kindred worlds, at no 
great distance, and pertaining so closely to his abode, 
so that they also might be included in the circle of 
his activities and conducted to their destined perfec- 
tion. Perhaps man should have been able, in the 
ever-increasing energy of his destiny from a godly 
development, and in the complete subjection of the 



460 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

physical forces to his control, to open up as safe and 
practicable a passage through the sea of ether which 
stretches from the shores of one island-world of our 
system to the other, as he has through the trackless 
watery wastes which separate land from land upon 
his own earth. And perhaps he would have suc- 
ceeded in devising means of overcoming the incon- 
gruities and inaptitudes of nature in those neighbor- 
ing worlds, just as he has succeeded in transforming 
and rendering habitable the forests and wastes of the 
earth. 

But as the sin of the first man gave the whole 
development of his race a perverted and godless 
direction, so that the appointed end can be reached 
only through the incarnation of the Son of God, who 
as the second Adam took the place of the first, in 
order to restore what had been destroyed — the des- 
tiny and predestined perfection of those worlds, like 
much upon the earth itself, remains suspended and 
incomplete, until Christ the second Adam take them 
up again and conduct them to the end. And as this 
perfection with respect to the world of our earth can 
be brought about only through a mighty final catas- 
trophe, followed by a general renovation of the world, 
in which all that is godless, the fruit of Satan's fall 
or the sin of man, shall be separated as dross, so also 
may the same in fitting measure be the casein those 
kindred and neighboring worlds. This is the rather 
to be assumed, as it is not in itself improbable that 
they were more or less affected by that catastrophe 
which brought about the tohu va bohu (chap. 4, § 6, 25) 
of the earth. 



ASTRONOMICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 461 

If from the foregoing it be found so difficult and 
doubtful an undertaking to assign to the planets of 
our system a fixed and characteristic position in the 
Biblico-astronomical theory of the world, we may 
well be excused from attempting a similar procedure 
with respect to the comets, and the innumerable 
asteroids called by the unpoetical name of shooting 
stars, satisfied that here, where Biblical intimations 
are wanting as well as characteristic astronomical 
data, no result can be obtained having much beyond 
a mere shade of probability. 

§ 11. The Astronomical Theory of the World. 

Copernicus, in so triumphantly combating the deeply- 
rooted cosmological errors of antiquity, gave illus- 
trious proof that science no less than faith, is pos- 
sessed of a world-surmounting power; but in a 
different manner, and with respect to a wholly dif- 
ferent sphere. This world-surmounting power of 
each, is truth, which is derived from God, is rooted 
in God, and tends toward God. It insures them both 
a final and permanent triumph over all the conflict- 
ing powers of self-interest, blindness, ignorance, folly, 
and error of the world, however wide-spread and in- 
veterate these may seem to be : it insures the true 
faith against all the assaults of that false science, 
which would combat, not Divine truth, but its own 
delusions and errors ; and no less does it warrant 
genuine science the most complete triumph over all 
error and superstition. 

Copernicus triumphed : truth, with him as its cham- 
pion, succeeded in casting out from the world those 
39* 



462 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

hosts of errors and prejudices which had been deeply 
rooted in it for thousands of years. It were not only 
vain, but singularly foolish, to resist and refuse to 
receive truths which have gloriously withstood all 
the fiery trials of doubt and direct assault, the severe 
examinations and tests imposed by friends and foes. 
But it is a different matter altogether, to protest 
against the false applications and groundless conse- 
quences which have been assigned to the same, 
through misconception or ignorance. 

"When at length, after a severe conflict, the truth 
of the Copernican system became generally acknow- 
ledged, the earth was no longer able to maintain that 
cosmological significance which had been previously 
so willingly accorded it by astronomy. It could no 
longer be regarded as the physical centre of the whole 
cosmical structure. It had to be placed, in an astro- 
nomical point of view, on a par with the rest of the 
planets, subordinate to the sun ; and the latter, as the 
centre of the system to which it belonged, assigned 
a place in the series of countless equally privileged 
suns, scattered through all space. But the idea was 
very soon conceived, something which never entered 
the mind of Copernicus, that along with the physical 
significance which had previously without reason 
been ascribed to the earth, its religious significance 
also, as represented in the Bible, could or should be 
set aside. It was held, that since the earth had be- 
come such a subordinate and insignificant point in 
the whole universe, our faith in the Bible which 
speaks of it as the theatre of the most glorious deeds 
and revelations of Deity, could no longer stand its 



ASTRONOMICAL THEORY OF THE WORLD. 463 

ground. And further, that upon a world so small, 
so poor and unimportant, the infinite and sovereign 
God, who had created innumerable other infinitely 
higher and more glorious worlds, and such as were 
better fitted for and deserving of high honor, could 
not condescend to manifest his miraculous power in 
the midst of us, and in due time Himself became 
man upon the earth, in personal union with a body 
to all eternity. 

Next came Herschel with his brilliant researches, 
by which the thousands of suns having equal, if not 
higher claims to distinction than our own glorious 
luminary, were increased to millions, yea, to billions; 
and in which with the increasing penetration of his 
telescope into the depths of space, new and count- 
less hosts of worlds were laid bare to the astonished 
eye, and space beyond the utmost bounds of tele- 
scopic vision, as well as the worlds it contained, 
seemed to the excited and enchained fancy, to be 
lost in absolute infinity. "When the mind became 
bewildered amid such a wide maze of worlds, not 
only did the earth seem too unimportant a spot for 
the incarnation as mentioned in the Bible, but also 
the universe in its imaginary infinity of space and 
time, too immense for longer belief in the Biblical 
doctrine of the finite nature of all creatures and 
created things, and the infinity of God alone, whom 
the heaven of heavens cannot contain, who alone is 
from eternity to eternity, while all the heavens were 
created out of nothing by the word of His mouth. 
Thus did the mind get rid of not only the immanent 
Redeemer of man and the earth, but also of the 



464 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

transcendent personal Creator of both the heavens 
and the earth. 

But if the investigations of Herschel gave to the 
astronomical theory of the world, a centrifugal and 
ever outward-tending direction, the modern discov- 
ery of Mcidler (chap. 5, § 9), on the other hand, seems 
well fitted to call it hack from its wild and daring 
flight in immensity, where it threatens not only to 
forget its proper home, but utterly to lose itself; and 
promises to give it again the centripetal direction, 
which is the necessary complement of the centri- 
fugal, and prevents the latter from wildly straying 
and becoming lost in an infinite — nothing. 

§ 12. The Infinity of Space. 

It is wholly beyond the power of human reason or 
understanding to comprehend that there exists, or 
rather, hoio there should exist, an absolute limit to 
space and the bodies included in it. But is an abso- 
lute infinity of space any the less incomprehensible ? 
It is inconceivable how and where space should cease 
to be, but is it any less inconceivable that it should 
be absolutely without limit, and how this should be? 
The incomprehensibility of the one as well as the 
other, arises, therefore, not from the nature of the 
things themselves, but from the inadequacy of the 
mind which attempts to grasp them. Reason here 
utterly confounded, refers us to faith. To faith alone 
remains the decision, and according to the true or 
false position of the former will be the issue of the 
latter. 

Theism, which regards the existence of a personal, 



THE INFINITY OF SPACE. 465 

living, and eternal God, who is as infinitely exalted 
over time and space, and distinct from them, as he is 
at the same time everywhere and omnipotently active 
in time and space — Theism, which regards this as in 
itself the most indubitable of all facts, and not re- 
quiring proof, must decide unconditionally for the 
finite, limited nature of creation with respect to time 
and space, however far we may desire to extend its 
boundaries. But Pantheism, which cannot imagine 
a personal God without and above the world, must 
decide no less promptly for the infinity of both time 
and space. 

Our object here has reference to Biblical Theism 
alone; to settle it upon a firm astronomical basis, 
and defend it with the weapons furnished us by 
astronomy, is the task we have assigned ourselves. 

With regard to the question whether space is to be 
considered as finite and limited, or infinite and with- 
out limit, all primarily depends upon the idea we 
have of space. Space may be understood in two dif- 
ferent senses, as formal, or real. In itself, it is a form 
merely, which acquires substance, an idea which 
acquires reality, only through the bodies which fill 
it. Empty space is nothing more than the negation 
or absence of material bodies, but at the same time 
is a possibility or capacity for the manifestation of 
such bodies. In this sense, which regards space as a 
mere susceptibility or capacity for the actual existence 
of bodies, we hesitate not to ascribe to it absolute 
infinity. For this capacity coincides with the omni- 
potence of Deity, in which as a potency there dwells 
the possibility of an unceasing creative activity. 



466 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

But to real space, i. e. 9 space which manifests itself 
or attains reality through the presence of bodies 
which occupy it (be these the coarsest or the finest, 
the most solid spheres or the most impassive fluids 
of a cosmical ether), we cannot ascribe infinity, with- 
out thereby wholly destroying the idea of a personal 
and transcendent God. Though we imagine creative 
activity unceasingly progressive, so that potential 
space is ever becoming raised to actual space, 
through the creation of new worlds ; still this actual 
space must ever be considered, at any given period, 
as finite and limited. The potency of creation lies 
in God, and is hence infinite like himself; but the 
realization of this potency is a manifestation of it on 
what is finite, and hence its results also must always 
be finite. For, in the process of creation, the created, 
which heretofore dwelt in God as a potency, proceeds 
forth from Him: it is distinct from God immediately 
upon its creation; hence, also, finite. It were infinite, 
only when God had fully exhausted the infinite crea- 
tive potency dwelling in himself, i. e., when in crea- 
ting, God had absolutely done away with Himself, and 
left an infinite universe in his stead. But it is a con- 
tradiction in itself to speak of an infinite potency 
becoming exhausted, and such a thing is not to be 
conceived. 

Hence it is clear that the idea of a transcendent 
Creator is wholly irreconcilable with the idea of the 
infinity of actual space ; so that if the latter over- 
power the mind, and cannot be got rid of, the idea 
of a transcendent Creator must be at once aban- 
doned. This is the origin of Pantheism. 



TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF GOD. 467 

Since therefore actual space, i. e. space containing 
bodies, is finite, and must consequently have a limit 
within which it is comprehended, and without which 
it would dissolve away and be utterly lost, we can 
but suppose that God Himself is this limit. And 
also, as God, being a Spirit, is immaterial, that the 
boundary which surrounds and keeps together the 
whole creation, is likewise an immaterial one — of a 
spiritual nature, or a pure force. But this power can 
and must have a two-fold character, first, it must act 
from the periphery toward the centre and all points 
lying between the two ; and then it must act from 
the centre toward the periphery, in all directions and 
toward all points. The former we perceive in the 
Transcendence of God, the latter in His Immanence. 

§ 13. The Transcendence and Immanence of God in the 
Mirror of Astronomy. 

Let us now inquire how these results of theistic faith 
and reason comport with the results of astronomy. 

It must be understood, in the first place, that when 
astronomy speaks of an infinity of space, or an infinity 
of worlds, as the fruit of its researches, no absolute, 
but ever a mere relative infinity can be meant, i. e. 
that its investigations and observations have not suc- 
ceeded in carrying themselves to the utmost limits 
of space or of worlds. 

Astronomy may have a right to maintain that 
those nebulas scattered profusely over the whole 
heavens, and refusing to be resolved by the most 
powerful instruments, are new systems of Milky- 
Ways — although this right even might be very much 



468 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

called in- question, as we have previously seen : it 
may boldly assert, something for which it has no 
foundation, that yet more space-penetrating instru- 
ments will reveal still more remote systems of Milky- 
Ways, nebulae respectively : it may extend this ideal 
and perhaps altogether fanciful construction of worlds, 
as far as it will, — still it is far, very far, from being jus- 
tified in the assumption, that this heaping of systems 
upon systems of Milky- Ways is absolutely infinite, 
and knows no bound. 

Such a relative infinity of worlds as the above 
taught by astronomy, assuredly cannot appear to any 
one irreconcilable with the theistic or Biblical doctrine 
of Deity. Indeed, we cannot see why we should ap- 
prehend any danger to our faith, were this idea of 
the relative infinity of worlds so extended, that not 
only reason but even imagination should grow giddy ; 
we object not in the least against astronomy increas- 
ing and exalting the creative glory of our God to 
such a height, that thought and reason should utterly 
fail, and we fall prostrate in the dust to wonder and 
adore ; for even here we might appeal to Scripture, 
in which the glory, majesty, and omnipotence of 
Deity, are praised in the most exalted terms. 

But astronomy, on the contrary, offers us positive 
data which seiwe sigually to strengthen us in the 
results of theistic speculation, as obtained in the pre- 
vious pages, and to give concrete form to the abstract 
necessity of such results. 

We here refer particularly to the magnificent disco- 
very of the present day, which we owe to the profound 
sagacity and fruitful diligence of Madler (chap. 5, § 9). 






TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OP GOD. 469 

The tendency of all cosmical bodies and cosmical 
systems towards a common centre, which is ever ideal 
and immaterial (chap. 5, § 11, note 22), and which 
represents itself as material, only in a case where the 
masses are so widely disproportioned as in our solar 
system, points very clearly to that Eternal Centre, 
which, in the language of Scripture, supports and 
sustains all things by the word of His power ; — it 
bears clear witness to the immanence of God, as the 
eternal, original power, itself immaterial and uncre- 
ated, which with omnipotent energy pervades and 
upholds all things material and created, the sun no 
more than the mote floating in his beams; and 
which itself partaking of unity, places all single 
phenomena of the world of the created under a sin- 
gle (einheitlichen) point of view. As in Madler's 
central theory each cosmical body exerts its influence 
of gravitation upon all the rest, and conversely, is 
itself acted upon by all the other bodies, we have 
here a symbol and evidence of the omnipresence and 
eflicient power of God, by which all things in the 
universe are referred to that unity which is Himself, 
and all the most varied and manifold relations of 
things subordinated to one another. Gravitation is 
the immanence of God ; the embodiment of Deity, if 
it might be so spoken, in the sphere of the cosmical. 
But there exists a corresponding gravitation in the 
sphere of the created mind, through which all indi- 
vidual minds are placed in relation to the Centre of 
all mind, as well as in the most varied relations to 
each other ;— only with this distinction, that the gra- 
vitation which obtains in the spiritual world is made 
40 



470 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

dependent upon the self-determination and voluntary 
development of the individual, and therefore sub- 
jected to the changes and disturbances conditioned 
by the use or abuse of personal freedom ; whilst the 
purely cosmical gravitation was finished by the Cre- 
ator in the beginning, but not connected either with 
freedom or personality, and hence not exposed to 
such an abuse of powers, and to the disturbances 
which would follow. 

As we have recognized in the centripetal force of 
cosmical bodies, a symbol and evidence of the im- 
manence of God, so also their centrifugal force points 
to the transcendence of the Divine Being. The latter 
evinces the fact that, besides that force which attracts 
all bodies towards a single point, and opposed to it — 
completing it and sustaining the equilibrium with 
it — there must be without and beyond the world, a no 
less powerful force at work upon all the single worlds, 
attracting them no less powerfully and irresistibly. 
To this striving of the cosmical bodies toward the 
circumference there corresponds in the sphere of 
created personality, a need of the spirit to seek God 
not only in the created but without it and beyond it. 
The centripetal force alone would dash world 
against world, and lead the created spirit to deifica- 
tion of self and the world ; the centrifugal force alone 
would rend world away from world, and deprive the 
spirit of all basis and self-clejDenclence. Eegarded 
singly, the centrifugal force corresponds to Deism, 
the centripetal to Pantheism, and the living union 
of the two, their mutual completion and harmonious 
cooperation, to Christian Theism. 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 471 

§ 14. The Incarnation of God. 

We now come to the essential point in the nominal 
contradiction between the Biblical and the astronomi- 
cal theoiy of the world. It has respect to the funda- 
mental and leading doctrine of all Christendom, with 
which the latter stands or falls — the doctrine of the 
Incarnation of God in Christ — which it is asserted 
can no longer maintain its ground, in the face of the 
results of modern astronomy which bespeak an infin- 
ity of worlds. 

How is it possible, it is inquired, how is it to be 
conceived that the Lord and Creator of all those 
countless, immeasurable and glorious worlds, before 
which our earth shrinks away as a mote in the pres- 
ence of a mighty globe, or is lost as a drop in the 
ocean, should have chosen this little point, earth, out 
of all the rich depths of the universe, in order here 
to appear and here take upon Himself the sorrows 
and infirmities of humanity ; veiling Himself for 
man's sake in mortal flesh, in order through agony 
and death to redeem the children of men, and estab- 
lish the throne of his glory in the midst of them; in 
order, as their brother and friend, and the partner 
of their flesh and blood, to make them partakers of 
all his majesty and glory? Is there indeed none to 
be found among all the countless celestial worlds, all 
of which are infinitely glorious, more worthy and 
fitting to be the place of the most glorious revelation 
of Deity, the centre of the universe, the eternal 
throne of His immediate presence? And have not 
all those worlds — each singly — the very same, and 



472 CONFLICT AND HAEMOXY. 

even still higher claims to such distinction ? Or can 
it be that He, the Unchangeable and the Just, is so 
arbitrary and partial as to give to one what he 
denies to another ? 

It must be allowed that the disproportion here 
presented is so great and so overwhelming, that our 
minds may well be startled and filled with hesitation 
the moment it first strikes them. But is He, who 
created all these worlds, and among them this little 
point, earth, any less great and powerful ? True, no 
human mind is able to reconcile the contrasts of great 
and small as here presented, or to fill up the wide 
spaces between them; but is the Infinite Mind bound 
by the fetters of human reason, and the Divine will 
measured by human penetration ? Does it become 
us to pronounce what is possible and what impossible 
with the Almighty ? Shall we presume to set bounds 
to his power, and say: Hitherto — but no further? 
To question his demeanor and decide what is worthy 
of Himself? To set bounds to his workings, lest 
prejudice should arise ? Shall we instruct Him to 
measure his free grace by cubic miles, or his love by 
the magnitude of fixed stars ? Shall we presume to 
say how many square miles a planet must have, that 
it may be a fitting place for the incarnation of the 
Eternal ? Shall we forbid Him, that He should, in 
his wisdom and grace, choose "the foolish things of 
the world to confound the wise; and the weak things 
of the world to confound the things which are 
mighty; and base things of the world, and things 
which are despised, and things that are not, to bring 
to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 473 

in his presence? ,M Has He not power to do what 
He will with his own? Is our eye evil because his is 
good? 2 

The revelations of the microscope have frequently, 
and not without reason, been opposed as a corrective 3 
to the discoveries of the telescope, which have filled 

1 1 Cor. 1 : 27-29. 2 Matt. 20 : 15. 

3 Chalmers, in particular, has pursued this course, in his Astro- 
nomical Discourses. We quote the following from the third dis- 
course of the series: "It was the telescope that, by piercing the 
obscurity which lies between us and distant worlds, put infidelity 
in possession of the argument against which we are contending. 
But, about the time of its invention, another instrument was 
formed, which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and rewarded 
the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery, which serves to 
neutralize the whole of this argument. This was the microscope. 
The one led me to see a system in every star — the other leads 
me to see a world in every atom. The one taught me that this 
mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people, and of its 
countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity — 
the other teaches me that every grain of sand may harbor within 
it the tribes and families of a busy population. The one told me 
of the insignificance of the world I tread upon — the other re- 
deems it from all its insignificance ; for it tells me that in the 
leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in 
the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, 
and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. The one has 
suggested to me that beyond and above all that is visible to man, 
there lie fields of creation which sweep immeasurably along, and 
carry the impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest scenes 

of the universe Every addition to the powers of the one 

instrument extends the limit of the visible dominions of the great 
King. The advancing perfection of the other peoples every point 
of immeasurable space. The bold assertions made by infidelity 
on the strength of the revelations of astronomy require no other 
refutation, as we view the question, than that furnished by the little 
instrument, the microscope," etc. 

40* 



474 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

so many minds with hesitation and doubt ; for in 
that the microscope has shown us that every atom of 
the earth, as well as every drop of water, contains a 
world of wonder and life, such progress at least has 
been made that we have arrived at another and a 
better gauge of the greatness, wisdom, might, and 
majesty of God, than that founded on distances of 
fixed stars. We have arrived at the clear conscious- 
ness, that the earth, however small, puny, and insig- 
nificant it may be, compared with the whole universe, 
still contains a like infinite plenitude of richly -varied 
worlds, to that which exists in the whole universe, in 
proportion to its magnitude. 

Further, it has been shown, and clearly, too, that 
in this question of puzzling contrasts, two wholly in- 
commensurable spheres have been confounded and 
compared with each other, as of equal title to con- 
sideration — the sphere of nature and of spirit, of 
materiality and of personality, of space and of will. 
But assuredly the greatest deeds and most wondrous 
revelations of spirit may unfold themselves in the 
smallest space ! and it is in this very fact that spirit 
evinces its greatest glory, that it makes the smallest 
spot, and indeed the rather as it is small, the theatre 
of its most grand and comprehensive revelations. 

But still, such considerations advance us but little 
toward the desired end. One astonishment is merely 
counteracted by another; but contrast opposed to 
contrast does not really bring about a reconciliation 
and remove all difficulty. No sooner has the mind 
recovered itself from the second astonishment, than 
it again recurs to the first, with its "but still" as a 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 475 

new protest. Its earnest desire, and that not without 
reason, is to see the wondrous revelations of the tele- 
scope no less than the microscope, each in their own 
sphere, harmonized with religious views. Let us see 
if such an accordance may not be effected, without 
having recourse to the desperate measure of attempt- 
ing to destroy and do away with one inexplicable 
problem by means of another no less inexplicable. 

§ 15. Continuation. 

"What if the earth alone, of all worlds, stood in need 
of such a testimony on the part of God ; if it were 
alone fallen into sin and misery, so that it alone 
should have stood in need of redemption ? Would 
not the idea that it should alone have been worthy of 
redemption, give way before the idea that it alone 
stood in need of it, the former be lost in the latter ? 

"What think ye?" say the lips of eternal "Wisdom, 
" What think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, 
and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the 
ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and 
seeketh that which is gone astray ? And if so be that 
he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of 
that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not 
astray." 1 And shall not the sovereign, the everlast- 
ing Shepherd, who tends his innumerable golden 
flock within the pavilion of the heavens, leave there 
those millions to hasten after the member that may 
have strayed, be it the smallest, the weakest, and 
most sorely stricken of the whole flock ? Is it not 
most in need of his tender care, without which it 

1 Matt. 18 : 12, 13. 



476 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

should utterly perish ? Shall He not, in infinite love 
and never-ending compassion, seek it out, and greatly 
rejoice over it when it has been brought back in 
safety? Left is not necessarily forsaken: the rest 
suffer not from special care bestowed on one; but 
are securely kept and guarded, and whether they be 
hundreds or millions, can that make any change in 
the counsels of eternal love ? 

"Were this earth the only province in the immea- 
surable domain of Deity, and it the smallest and 
most insignificant, too, in which rebellion had broken 
out, where unhallowed claims were set up, where all 
hostile rebellious forces are concentrated, should the 
eternal King care less for it, than would under similar 
circumstances an earthly king for the smallest and 
poorest province of his realm ? Would not all his 
powers be enlisted to put down and extinguish the 
mutiny, and would not the inhabitants, who through 
infatuation alone could have permitted themselves 
to be enticed to revolt, and to become so unhappily 
caught in a rebellion, be chastised, indeed, but the 
penitent received into favor again, delivered from 
their unfortunate delusion, and peace and order be 
restored? "But what," in the language of an illus- 
trious writer, 1 "if this be applicable to beings of a 

higher nature If, on the one hand God be 

jealous of his honor, and on the other there be proud 
and exalted spirits, who scowl defiance at Him and 
at his monarchy ; — then let the material prize of 
victory be insignificant as it may, it is the victory in 
itself, which upholds the impulse of the keen and 

1 Chalmers, Astronomical Discourses, dis. 6th. 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 477 

stimulated rivalry. If, by the sagacity of one infernal 
mind, a single planet has been seduced from its alle- 
giance, and been brought under the ascendency of 
him, who in the Scriptures is called ' the god of this 
world ;' and if the errand on which the Redeemer 
came, was to destroy the works of the devil 1 — then 
let this planet have all the littleness which astronomy 
has assigned to it — call it what it is, one of the smaller 
islets which float on the ocean of immensity ; it has 
become the theatre of such a competition, as may 
have all the desires and all the energies of a divided 
universe embarked -upon it. It involves in it other 
objects than the single recovery of our species. It 
decides higher questions — it stands linked with the 

supremacy of God To an infidel ear, all this 

may carry the sound of something wild and visionary 
along with it ; but though only known through the 
medium of revelation, after it is known, who can fail 
to recognize its harmony with the great lineaments 
of human experience ? Who does not recognize in 
these facts much that goes to explain why our planet 
has taken so conspicuous a position in the foreground 
of history?" 

The foregoing course of reasoning must be recog- 
nized as in itself admissible, and astronomy has no- 
thing to say against it. But, more than that, the 
results of this science appear very well to agree with 
it. For the thorough difference between the nature 
of the fixed stars and that of the bodies of our planet- 
ary system, and the fact that amid the former all the 
varied contrasts and conditions which here below 

■ 1 John 3 : 8. 



478 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

symbolize and attest the dominion of sin and death, 
man's recreancy to his original destiny, and his need 
of redemption, seem to be in fact wanting, very much 
favor the conclusion, as we have previously shown 
(§ 8), that the worlds on high are the abodes of pure 
and holy beings, who stand in no need of redemption 
or restoration. 

This apprehension of the matter also agrees very 
well, at least in one respect, with the teachings of 
Holy "Writ ; for man is there certainly regarded, if 
not the only fallen, at least the only personal being 
capable of being redeemed, and hence needing the 
provisions of salvation. But just at this point we 
begin to see how unsatisfactory and one-sided this 
apology or reply is. For the Scriptures speak of a du- 
plex fall, a fall in the angelic world as well as that one 
in our human world. True, the theatre of the former 
as well as the latter was this earth ; but this fact in 
itself throws no new light on the present subject; for 
the incarnation upon the earth has no saving power 
with respect to the first inhabitants of the earth, the 
angels, but only to its second inhabitants, fallen men. 

But this reply is discovered to be incomplete and 
unsatisfactory in another respect. It falls short of 
the objection ; so that its success can at best be called 
only a partial, and hence a doubtful one. The Bib- 
lical doctrine of the Incarnation, beyond doubt, com- 
prehends something more and something higher than 
a mere restoration of the human race to an equal 
level with those happy beings which kept their first 
estate. In it we behold, since God remains man for- 
ever, the means and pledge of man's exaltation above 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 479 

all other creatures ; and in the same measure are we 
confidently to expect the earth, which through the 
incarnation has been appointed as the ever-enduring 
throne of the most immediate divine presence, to be 
exalted above all other worlds. 

§ 16. Continuation, 

The unsatisfactory nature of the reply furnished 
in the foregoing, accounts for the procedure of some 
minds in abandoning altogether the view on which 
it is founded, and building up in its place a directly 
antagonistic, but not less one-sided theory ; instead 
of holding fast to truth already obtained, and seek- 
ing to supply its deficiencies. The earth, it is said, 
has been honored as the place of the one all-glorious 
revelation of Deity, not through its necessities and 
its lowliness, but on account of its dignity and worth. 
Its nature and destiny, it is asserted, were from the 
beginning higher and more glorious than the same 
attributes of any of the other worlds, and were not 
made so through the accident that revolt from God 
should have begun its daring career just upon it. 
And farther, that the earth is not to be advanced to 
the glorious state of the rest of the celestial worlds, 
but that, on the other hand, all the other worlds of 
the universe are now involved in a process of deve- 
lopment, which is to conduct them to that state of 
cosmical perfection which even now belongs to the 
earth, in spite of the catastrophe of the fall. 

We may, in this connection, cite the words of one 
who has penetrated far into the arcana of nature. 1 

1 H. Steffen's christl. Religiomphilos., vol. I., pp. 204-206. Bres* 
lau, 1839. 



mm 



480 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

" The discoveries of modern astronomy touching the 
double and nebulous stars," he says, " show clearly 
that the universe, on the whole, begins to assume a 
historical character. It is daily becoming more pro- 
bable that these bodies exhibit actual grades, even to 
the complete development of our planetary system. It 
were a point gained for the Christian religion, no less 
than for speculation, to learn that our planetary sys- 
tem, yea, this very earth itself, is the centre of the 

whole universe We may here venture the 

assertion, that modern astronomy is fast approaching 
the time, ivhen our planetary system shall be recognized 
as the most highly organized point in the immensity of 
the universe ; and that then the time will not be far 
distant, when, in like manner, our earth shall be 
recognized, not as the apparent, but as the real cen- 
tral point of the planetary system, spiritually con- 
sidered, as is man, in the whole organism. . . . The 
sacred spot where the Lord deigned to appear, is 
destined to be regarded as the absolute centre of the 
whole creation. And no less are wild nights of fancy, 
by which souls are transported to distant stars, a 
Sirius fitted up as the future paradise, while other 
minds scrupulously hold that each of the celestial 
worlds has a history of its own, similar to the history 
of our human world, destined to halt in their upward 
course, and return contented to the earth." 1 

1 Hegel has expressed himself in a similar manner (Encyclop. 
3d, I 270) : " The planetary bodies are from their marked concrete- 
ness the most perfect of the cosmical masses. The sun is customa- 
rily regarded as preeminent, since the mind prefers the abstract 
to the concrete; as likewise, and for the same reason, the fixed stars 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 481 

It must be confessed, we cannot adopt such an 
apprehension and theory of the starry heavens : we 
say, in all fairness, that whatever has been gathered 
through the medium of modern astronomy, concern- 
ing the nature of the fixed stars, of however incom- 
plete, equivocal, and unsatisfactory a character it 
may be, our mind has received from it the irresist- 
ible impression that we do not behold in the con- 
stitution of the remote regions of the heavens, lower 
and undeveloped, but higher, more noble, and purer 
grades of cosmical structure ; for a satisfactory view 
of which, we refer to what is said in § 8. But still, 
we cannot denominate such an apprehension of the 
matter an absurd one, as has sometimes been done, 
and least of all, from a purely astronomical 1 point of 
view. For the results of this science are so equivo- 
are assigned a higher claim to regard than the bodies of the solar 
system. 

1 From the empirical stand-point it must ever be conceded by 
astronomy, that possibly the same disproportion between expecta- 
tion or fancy on the one hand, and the naked reality on the other, 
might be discovered in the case of the fixed stars, were they 
brought as near us as the moon is by our telescopes — the same 
disproportion as exists between the fancied and real state of the 
moon's surface. How have our poets and sublunary sentimental- 
ists praised the quiet, tranquil moon, with its mild lustre, pictur- 
ing it in imagination as the most peaceful and blessed abode in 
the universe, and longing to escape the noise and din of our ter- 
restrial world in leading the pure, angelic life to be experienced 
in such a happy region ! But how miserably barren and waste, 
and wholly devoid of all that here upon earth begets, possesses, 
or cherishes life, does the telescope reveal it to be ! What a leap 
from a paradise for sentimental, imaginative and romantic lovers, 
to an unblest prison-house for the spirits of the lost, for which the 
moon has latterly been found much better adapted ! 
41 



482 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

cal, that in one aspect they seem to favor the view 
that our planetary system is the most perfect of all 
cosmical structures ; so that both the abettors and 
the opponents of this theory may claim to have the 
support of astronomy. 

From the aids of science it has become probable, 
that the like of our planetary system is nowhere to 
be found in all the known universe ; and we have 
already learned that the said system presents thorough 
contrasts to the rest of the stellar heavens. Here we 
have a complex organism, exhibiting co-ordination 
and subordination ; the poles of the solar and the 
planetary, of the lunar and the terrestrial, are here 
separated ; while there co-ordination only, and unity 
of these opposing principles, bear peaceful sway. 
But this result may be appropriated by either party 
and made to bear in either direction. The one be- 
holds as an evidence of the greatest perfection, the 
fact that these poles are separated, and appeals to the 
analogies of the organic world, where the most per- 
fect forms are distinguished by the separation of the 
opposite poles (the sexual, for example), while the 
most imperfect of all creatures are without sex, or 
hermaphrodites ; and thus, perhaps, sees in the full 
manifestation of these contrasts, the most energetic 
potency of life, the most complete development: 
while the other beholds in this opposition of princi- 
ples, only antagonism, conflict, and discord; but 
in their union, harmony, and fully developed life. 
The former discovers in the arrangement of sub- 
ordination and co-ordination, not merely a temporary 
necessity, but a legitimate and ever-abiding law, — 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 483 

the latter seeks perfection perhaps in the co-ordina- 
tion of creatures of the same species, and recognizes 
in subordination, a lower and merely temporarily 
necessary arrangement. And though it be true that 
as we pass outward from our system, which holds 
pretty much a central position in the great system of 
the fixed stars, the cosmical structures gradually 
assume a different character as the distance increases 
— as though the modification commencing in our 
system were continued there in a similar ratio:— first, 
isolated stars, and then double stars, magically united, 
and as it would appear, indispensable to each other, 
which form the transition to those more remote 

multiple stars, and exceedingly rich astral groups 

still, we look in vain here for decisive authority to 
pronounce upon the point at issue. For, on the one 
hand, that state of isolation may be praised as one 
of a fulness which is self-satisfying, which possesses 
in itself all that is to be desired, without the neces- 
sity of depending on an adjacent body ; on the other 
hand, it may be deplored as a state of loneliness, 
wanting in sympathy, harmony, and happiness! 
Again, we have first of all, density, concentration 
of light, well-defined outline, and steadfastness of 
form, which ever become less as distance increases, 
and give place to transitive forms or maturing struc- 
tures : still relatively near are stars and systems of 
stars, which, like the growing embryo in the womb, 
are still surrounded by the sea of light out of which 
they have been formed or are now being formed, 
and at the greatest distance, immeasurable depths of 
light, in which not even the faintest trace of a com- 



484 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

plete or growing star is to be discovered. Does not 
this, perhaps, decisively determine the point before 
us ? By no means ; for that solidity and steadfast- 
ness of form may, on the one hand, be called a rigid 
inaptitude to change or improvement, and evidence 
of a lower stage of development, in opposition to a 
higher and more vigorous stage, where there is mo- 
bility and capacity for improvement, where the bodies 
are ever taking on fresh forms of life ; while on the 
other hand, the very same appearances may be ap- 
pealed to as proofs of an ever-increasing perfection 
from without toward the centre. 

If we compare the notion that the earth also in a 
cosmical point of view, although in appearance one 
of the most paltry and insignificant worlds of the 
universe, may still be in idea and spiritual signifi- 
cance, the proper and true central spot of the whole 
universe, — if we compare this notion with Scripture 
and the views therein contained, the circumstance 
may be adduced in favor of it, as has already been 
done by its 1 abettors, that the Scriptures in the pro- 

1 Comp. H. Stefiens, in his Anthropologic, I., p. 264. Breslau, 
1822: "It must be maintained that the Ptolemaic system, which 
accords to the earth a central point in the universe, can never, on 
this very account, assume a truly religious and Christian signifi- 
cance, because it takes the appearance itself absolutely." Again 
he says, in his christl. Religionsphilos., L, p. 205 : " It is a point 
of great significance, that the epoch in scientific knowledge which 
took its rise from astronomy, should have begun in our compre- 
hending the earth in its globular form, and as involved in a com- 
mon whirl of movements with all the rest of the heavenly bodies, 
instead of sustaining a position of repose as a centre ; for the true 
centre can never (?) outwardly appear as such. As the human 
consciousness is justified in ceasing to seek the significance of 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 485 

vince of their ethico-religious representations, make 
the same contrast between appearance and idea the 
basis of their views ; and consider the final recon- 
ciliation of this contrast as the ultimate end of all 
history; so that the incongruity in the cosmical is 
merely a reflex image of the incongruity in the spir- 
itual sphere, and the one serves to explain and estab- 
lish the other. 

There is, to a certain extent, solid ground in this 
argument, which should not be overlooked. The 
theologian cannot, may not, nor does he need to 
hinder or oppose the astronomer in regarding the 
earth as a subordinate member of our planetary sys- 
tem, and this system itself as the smallest of all cos- 
mical systems, if his scientific researches force him 
to this conclusion, — for the astronomer has another 
rule whereby to measure magnitude and glory than 
that of the theologian. Man judges according to 
the outward appearance, but God looketh on the 
heart ;* and the divine, and with him the christian, 
whether he be an astronomer or not, is bound as far 
as he is able, to see things as God sees them, which is 
to be done in the light of Divine revelation. The 
astronomer, as such, sees things in their outward rela- 
tions. His object rests with the appearance ; it is his 
province here to distinguish between truth and error, 
illusion and reality, what is imaginary and what is 

morality in outward works, and in recognizing it only in the sen- 
timents lying beyond all such outward manifestation; so the 
centre of the universe is to be likewise recognized not merely in 
its outer but in its inner secret,character." 
1 1 Sam. 16 : 7. 
41* 



486 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

actual in the appearance. He has a perfect right, 
from Ms stand-point, to assign the earth a subordinate 
position in the solar system, and the latter a similar 
one in respect to the whole universe. The divine is 
accustomed, rather, to judge the outer by the inner, 
the visible appearance by the hidden idea ; to look 
for majesty in the form of a servant, and exaltation 
in lowliness : to him it is said, "But whosoever will 
be great among you, let him be your minister." 1 And 
he must, since he is accustomed to the incongruity 
and the contrast which here below are everywhere 
presented by the appearance to the idea, from the 
outset be disposed to give his assent to the heliocen- 
tric doctrine, and the results of astronomy in general. 
These results cannot, nor will they, take him by sur- 
prise or inopportunely ; but, on the other hand, will 
but corroborate a truth which is the soul of his whole 
system of knowledge, and exhibit themselves to his 
mind wholly in accordance with the analogy of faith. 
But still, we can give our assent to the view taken 
by Steffens, only on condition that it undergo not 
unessential modifications and limitations. And in 
the first place, we are rigidly opposed to the notion 
that a true but unapparent centrality now belonging 
to the earth in respect to the cosmos, is never to be 
manifested and rendered perceptible from outward 
relations. We cannot but regard the contrast be- 
tween the appearance and the idea, as having merely 
a relative, but not an absolute necessity ; and hence, 
as being merely of a transient, but not of a perma- 
nent character. From the philosophical, and still 

1 Matt. 20 : 26. 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 487 

more decidedly from the theological stand-point, we 
are forced to regard an ultimate reconciliation and 
removal of these contrasts, an ultimate triumph of the 
appearance over the idea, as the necessary and final 
end of all history. 

For as in the sphere of morals all christian effort 
is directed to the task of adequately represesting faith 
in works, and the sentiments of the heart in language, 
so also in respect to history, all the prophecies of the 
Bible touching the future completion of all things, 
look to the advent of the time when everything that 
is veiled or hidden shall he brought to light, when 
the outward condition shall conform to the inward 
reality, the deceptive appearance or shadow give place 
to the inner substance. 

There must dwell uppermost in the idea, a living 
effort to overcome all that is inadequate, faulty, or 
contradictory in the manifestation, to assert its own 
prerogatives, and cast off the shackles which have 
been imposed upon it from without. For otherwise 
the idea were lifeless. 

But if the idea contain vital energies, and assert 
its life in the effort to attain an adequate manifesta- 
tion, this effort must ever be followed by a progres- 
sive result, however slow or deeply hidden that result 
may be ; and the final issue must display itself in the 
complete triumph of the idea. For, otherwise, we 
should have either a dualistie Manicheism, which 
regards antagonism of principles, not as temporary 
and accidental only, but eternal and necessary, — or 
a pantheistic world, where to all eternity the existing 
is supplanted by what is coming into existence; 



488 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

where the idea, circling in severe and eternal labor, 
produces nothing but abortions. Where an eternal 
passing away is opposed by a coming into being, 
where there is conflict without victory, and sin ap- 
pears as a good in itself, a mightiest agency of de- 
velopment: where there is commencement without 
consummation, an eternal blossoming without any 
fruit, an onward striving before which the goal ever 
recedes ; — truly nature were here a Sisyphean labor, 
in which the soul of the world is ever anxiously but 
abortively engaged. 

If, now, our solar system, and in it, our earth, be, 
notwithstanding the oppositions of empirical science, 
the culminating point of all creation, where in the 
past the Lord appeared in the form of a servant, that 
he might come again in the future with great glory, 
and raise the place of his temporary humiliation to 
the place of his eternal glory, manifesting upon it 
the highest and most immediate evidences of the 
Omnipotent Presence in the sphere of the created, — 
if this be so, there must be observable more or less 
distinct traces, not only of a capacity and basis for 
this highest stage of development, but also of a de- 
velopment already begun and more or less advanced 
to that stage. If the earth be indeed the most pre- 
cious germ of the whole creation, the living rudiment 
of the future blossom and fruit, as in the grain cast 
into the earth, must already be present in it. 

We admit the correctness of Steffens view, so far 
as it regards earth and man, the former in a cosmical 
and the latter in an ethico-religious point of view, 
as having attained their high significance in the his- 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 489 

tory of the universe, not merely by accident, but from 
having been originally called thereto by a destiny in 
harmony with their original endowments. But we 
feel ourselves called upon to expose its falsity and 
inadequacy, so far as it either denies or altogether 
ignores the fact that, allowing the high distinction 
shown to the nature and destiny of the earth and of 
man before the nature and destiny of all other worlds 
and their inhabitants, the latter must at the same 
time be acknowledged, from another point of view, 
as having a decided distinction shown them in a cos- 
mical and ethical respect, the one on the grounds of 
astronomical, and the other on the grounds of theo- 
logical investigations. 

It may be true, as Steffens and Hegel seem to have 
intimated in the passages referred to, that the pecu- 
liar, manifold, and complex relations and connections 
of our solar system, the solid, concrete forms of the 
bodies belonging to it, and perhaps also, many other 
peculiarities existing in nature, the dissimilarity of 
which to corresponding conditions in the celestial or 
stellar worlds is less conspicuous, are to be taken as 
evidences that our system is the only one of its kind, 
and unexampled in its dignity and destiny. But it 
must be acknowledged, on the other hand, that to 
all these marks of distinction, if they be regarded as 
such, there still belong at present, defects, inaptitudes, 
and incumbrances, to which the worlds of the fixed 
stars are not subjected. Solidity or firmness of ma- 
terial composition, so highly esteemed, is counterba- 
lanced or detracted from by a hampering incapacity 
for change of form; and concreteness of structure 



490 CONFLICT AND HAKMONY. 

brings along with it a state of isolated loneliness 
without sympathy. The varied and rich connections 
and relations of the system condition those restless 
and painful actings and reactings of opposites, the 
despotic sway of the greater over the less and the 
subordinate, the imperious dominion of crude naked 
mass over the powers of the will and the mind ; the 
disturbing alternation of light and darkness, of heat 
and cold, of summer and winter, of blooming and 
fading, of coming into being and ceasing to be. We 
cannot, therefore, ascribe to the earth, and to the solar 
system in general, an absolutely higher position, in the 
present stage of their development. We must allow 
the fact, that those glorious worlds on high still have 
very many, diverse, and special marks of high dis- 
tinction ; and grant that absolute sovereignty in this 
respect is to be looked for, only when in the progres- 
sive development and final perfection of our solar 
system, there shall have been added, as it were to its 
present prerogatives, in full realization, the high 
claims of the celestial worlds. 

It has already been seen, in the fourth chapter 
(comp. particularly § 36), that with respect to the 
inhabitants they contain, the same contrast, with a 
corresponding pre-eminence or inferior condition, 
obtains between the earth and the celestial worlds. 

But, apart from these necessary and not unessential 
restrictions, the view of Steffens cannot vanquish and 
remove all doubts and difficulties, which from a cos- 
mico-astronomical point of view, may present them- 
selves against the occurrence of the Incarnation upon 
the earth. The whole scope of the question before 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 401 

us is by no means satisfied in showing how the 
Earth, in respect to its cosmical and ethical position, 
should have had, in preference to all other worlds, 
the nearest and the most decisive claims to such a 
pre-eminence, if it were to be possessed by any world 
in general. But, on the contrary, the real difficulty 
is to show that such a high honor was destined for 
the earth alone, and how this should have been ; to 
show that the rest of the worlds were either not 
capable of, or did not stand in need of an analogous 
incarnation of Deity for themselves, and why this 
should have been so. We are called upon to clear 
up the question, whether the Incarnation upon the 
earth stands in any relation to the life and history of 
spiritual beings upon other worlds, and what there is 
of a necessary, essential, or decisive nature, in such 
relation — a question satisfactorily answered only 
when it is shown that in the high distinction con- 
ferred upon the earth, the rest of the worlds have in 
no manner been slighted, overlooked, or left behind. 

§ 17. Continuation. 

In order fully to acknowledge the claims of the 
point last indicated, and give it that consideration it 
deserves in the construction of a Biblical theory of 
the world, it has been strenuously and vigorously 
attempted even of late, to incorporate into the Chris- 
tian theory of the present time, an incarnation of 
Deity upon all worlds, corresponding to the incarna- 
tion upon the earth, as something in accordance with 
the Bible, and as an axiom demanded alike by the 



492 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

results of astronomy and the admitted principles of 
a Christian-tlieistic speculation. 1 

There lies at the foundation of this idea of an 
incarnation of Deity upon all worlds, another notion, 
which, as early as the middle ages, found many de- 
fenders ; and which, notwithstanding its complete 
overthrow by the Reformers and old Protestant 
divines, has again taken deep root in the theology 
of more modern times. 2 It is this : there was an 
absolute necessity supposed in the very creation it- 
self, and not conditioned through the entrance of sin, 
that God should become incarnate, in order that hu- 
manity might thereby be enabled to reach the high 
end for which it was predestinated. God had as- 
sumed human nature, it is argued, though man had 
never sinned ; but not in a state of humiliation, to 
suffer and die for humanity ; rather, at once in a 
state of majesty and glory, in order that through the 
union of the Divine and human natures in the God- 
man, he might fill up the impassable chasm between 
God and man, exalt the creature of God's power to 
be the child and heir of God, and the co-heir with 

1 Comp. the article by Dr. Chr. H. Weisse : Christus das Eben- 
bild des iinsichtbaren Gottes, Eine Frage an die christl. Thelogie 
unserer Zeit, in the theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1844, TV. p. 913- 
966. 

2 For example, it is advocated by Liebner, die christliche Dog- 
matic ans christologischem Princip. : Gb'ttingen, 1849 ; Dorner, die 
Lehre von der Person Christi, p. 527 seq : Stuttgard, 1839 ; Mar- 
tensen, christl. Dogmatik, p. 194 : Kiel, 1850 ; J. P. Lange, posi- 
tive Dogmatik, p. 212 seqq., &c. On the other hand, it is com- 
bated by Thomasius in der Zeitsclirift fur Protestantism, und 
Kirche, 1850 (Januarheft), and by Jul. Mtiller in der deutchen 
Zeitschrift fur christl. Wissenschaft, 1850, No. 40-43. 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 493 

Christ, 1 and make man a partaker of the Divine 
nature, 2 so that he might be like God. 3 

If this view be a legitimate one, it is not difficult, 
indeed we are impelled by a necessity which we can 
hardly escape, to extend it from men to angels also, 
and from the earth to all other habitations of created 
beings. But a closer examination of it will show 
clearly, that it is devoid of speculative necessity no 
less than of support from the Bible. 

The highest and ultimate end of all histories and 
developments in connection with created life, is — 
according to the demands of speculation and the 
teachings of revelation — "that G-odmay be all in all;"* 
that all creatures may, without foregoing their 
freedom, individuality, and independence, return 
again and merge themselves in the eternal source of all 
life, from whence they originally sprung ; that the dual- 
ism which was constituted in the creation of free, per- 
sonal beings, and which manifests itself in the inde- 
pendent existence of a free will, besides the free will 
of the Divine Being, may finally result in a permanent 
and undisturbed unity, without the removal or the 
endangering of the subsisting duality, — that in this 
consummation the movements of all created exist- 
ences may be brought to rest, the longings and 
hopes, the aims and efforts of the rational creature, 
be fully met, and satisfied in the fullest possession 
and most complete enjoyment ; that not only the real 
existence and manifestation of a sad opposition be- 
tween the Divine freedom and the freedom of the 



1 Rom. 8 : 17. 2 2 Pet. 1:4. 3 1 John 3 : 2. 

4 i'va fj 6 §tb$ ta rtdvta iv rtaGw, 1 Cor. 15 : 28. 

'42 



494 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

creature, should be overcome, but also the abstract 
possibility of a revolt or lapse to such a state of op- 
position, should be for ever excluded. 

We are bound to concede that if there be no other 
means whereby the last and highest destiny of all 
created beings can be reached, than an incarnation 
in all worlds where spiritual beings manifest their 
freedom, then is the reception of this axiom unavoid- 
ably necessary, from the clear demands of the Chris- 
tian-theistic faith. 

But such a supposition is an erroneous one, and 
hence its consequence cannot claim consideration. 

We grant that all creatures are called, at the end 
of their development, to return to the eternal source 
of life from whence they originally sprung ; so " that 
G-od may be all in all." It is clear that we cannot (as 
Pantheists) regard this return as a passing away, a 
ceasing or an annihilation of the individuality. The 
individuality which was constituted at the creation, 
remains as such, even after the return of the creature 
to the Deity; and not till then, indeed, does it mani- 
fest its highest advancement and completeness. This 
return can be conceived of, only in the following 
manner : God placed the created individual in exist- 
ence, but without Himself, by a creative act of his 
will. But that individual needed development, and 
was endowed with powers of development. There 
lay something more and something higher in the 
creative idea, than was effected at the time, by the 
act of creation ; and the latter deposited this merely 
in the capacity of a potency, a tendency, and a capa- 
bility. Were the created individual a free, personal, 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 495 

spiritual being, then must it cause the potency to be 
unfolded, and its destiny to be reached, by means of 
its own freedom. But, on the other hand, if an exis- 
tence belonging purely to the sphere of nature, and 
not endowed with freedom, then must it attain its 
development through the impulse of the natural ten- 
dency (instinct) implanted in it. Here, however, the 
influence of the free being placed over it and for its 
assistance, might be either advantageous or preju- 
dicial to its development. In the creation itself there 
was constituted a duality of the Creator and the 
creature, which was liable, through the misuse of 
freedom on the part of the creature, to degenerate 
into a complete and inwardly antagonistic dualism. 

But had the creature, endowed with freedom as 
well as not so endowed, unfolded itself wholly in ac- 
cordance with the will of God; then would both 
dualism have been for ever prevented, and the 
duality for ever preserved ; then would the creature, 
which at the creation was placed without the Deity, 
have returned to Him in its own development, and 
thus the Divine creative idea have been realized. 
The commencement and the end, the potency and 
its evolution, the design and its fulfillment, thus 
unite in a harmonious and well-rounded (einheit- 
lichen) whole. 

The duality, then, constituted through the creation, 
is an abiding and never-ending one. Whether, there- 
fore, it degenerate into dualism, the creature oppos- 
ing itself antagonistically to the Creator; or whether 
the creature return to the Creator, under the sway 
of a third and a higher law (the complete realization 



496 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

in itself of the idea of the creation) ; in neither case 
is there a recurrence of the primitive absolute unity, 
but the duality remains in both cases ; reconciled and 
united in the one, separated and antagonistically 
opposed in the other. 

Pantheism, on the contrary, holds that the creature 
(whether it take the one or the other direction) is, 
at the end of its development, absorbed into the 
Deity — that it ceases to be a creature any longer, and 
again becomes God. 

Theism cannot, of course, allow that the creature 
becomes God in this sense, nor in any sense, even 
though the individuality be not destroyed. Theism 
cannot grant that man at the end of his normal 
development, shall really become God, nor yet God- 
man, but merely divine man. For the creature can 
return to God only in so far, and only in the manner 
and the measure it has proceeded from Him. If it 
be purely a creature, the product of his will without 
the impartation of his nature ; without personality, 
without freedom, without spiritual essence; it can 
merely return or be conducted back to his will, i. e., 
be sustained and unfolded in accordance with the 
Divine will; so that at the end of the development 
the unfolded creature shall fully correspond to the 
idea and aim of the Divine creative will. But if the 
creature be a free, personal being, belonging not 
only to the sphere of nature, but also to that of spirit; 
if it be the offspring of God, 1 the image of God, 2 or 
spirit from Spirit, and hence have proceeded from the 
Divine will, with the impartation of the Divine na- 

» Acts 17 : 28. 2 Gen. 1 : 27. 



I 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 497 

ture — then it can and must (in respect to its spiritual 
aspect) return back to the Divine Being. Nor does 
it require for this end, in case its development be a 
normal one, any extraordinary assistance from Hea- 
ven. The physical chasm between the Divine Being 
and the creature, is, indeed, in itself, an infinite one ; 
and God alone can fill it up. But this he did in the 
creation itself, as he then imbued the creature with 
his own being, and made it to partake of his own 
nature. At least, he breathed into the nostrils of 
man, His living breath of life, and made him after 
his own image and likeness, as the offspring of God. 
And something of the same kind must have occurred 
in the creation of the angels also ; for they, too, are 
free, personal, spiritual beings. 

The powers bestowed upon the creature through 
its creation, or at least, in its creation, were straight- 
way sufficient, in case they were properly used, to 
conduct such being, each one after its own manner, 
to the predetermined goal. 

True, the case were different, if these powers were 
misused : if instead of a normal and godly develop- 
ment, an abnormal and ungodly course were taken ; 
if the creature, which through the creation was made 
in God and for God, should rend itself away from 
Him, and, taking its position without God, antago- 
nistically oppose itself to Him. A moral chasm 
would then arise, which would at once become a 
physical one also ; since the bonds which bound the 
divine being in man with its eternal source, should 
thus be torn asunder. Such a chasm were, both in 
its physical and moral aspects, an infinite one, which 
12* 



498 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

the creature of itself could never fill up or pass over. 
If, however, this chasm were to be filled up, and the 
fallen and rebellious creature led back to God, con- 
ducted to its original destination ; this could not 
possibly be effected otherwise than by intervention 
on the part of God. The fallen creature has no 
power, in itself, to raise itself again to God ; hence 
it becomes necessary that God must condescend to 
its low estate, that he may recover it from destruc- 
tion, that he may renew and complete it, by raising 
it from the depths of sin and misery to a place before 
his throne. 

The ground of the Incarnation is to be found here 
and nowhere else; in the sin of man, or rather, in the 
decree of Divine grace to conduct man, despite his 
sin and fall, to the goal for which he was destined at 
the creation. 

Christian speculation is doubtless under the guid- 
ance of a religious motive, in ascribing to the incar- 
nation an absolute necessity, arising from the creation 
itself; but this motive is founded upon an erroneous 
supposition. It rests entirely upon the supposition 
that man, through the incarnation, is to reach a higher 
position, and attain to a glory incomparably greater 
than he could have obtained without redemption, 
and consequently, without the entrance of sin also. 
It must be confessed, that the exalted terms in which 
the Holy Scriptures attempt to express the future 
great glory and blessedness of the redeemed of the 
earth, may easily, but none the less erroneously on 
that account, be held up in justification of this sup- 
position. 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 499 

It is, to our mind, altogether inconceivable from 
the Christian-theistic stand-point, that man, had he 
not sinned, and had he been true to his destiny, could 
not have attained any thing like the degree of ad- 
vancement, any thing like the degree of glory and 
blessedness now made possible to him through his 
sin, wickedness, and rebellion against God. Why, 
thus, we should have cause to rejoice that we had 
become sinners and rebels against God; and sin 
should be made, by the Divine decree itself, the in- 
dispensable means of carrying out that decree ; — sin 
itself should be the first and greatest of all blessings ! 

An Augustine, indeed, dared to utter the bold lan- 
guage: felix culpa, qwee talem meruit habere redemp- 
torem! and expressions similarly bold are still to be 
found in sacred songs of the present day. ^sTor would 
we absolutely condemn such expressions, coming 
from the depths of an humble and pious soul, any 
thing but disposed to treat sin playfully. There is 
a time for all things, and therefore for everything 
also, an improper time ; thus with paradoxes. If the 
Apostle were competent to call the wisdom of God 
folly, while the latter is indeed the fountain of all 
wisdom and knowledge ; perhaps such an one as 
Augustine might be justified in calling sin, though 
indeed the source of all misery, the ground of the 
saint's blessedness. There are at times profound and 
genuine stirrings of the religious emotions, in which 
the common expressions of every-day life appear too 
cold, too inexpressive, and too meagre, to exhaust in 
an adequate degree the depths of feeling within the 
soul. The mind then lays hold of paradoxes, in 



500 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

order to bring more vividly into view the helpless 
inadequacy of all common forms of speech, on such 
sacred and privileged occasions. 

This expression of Augustine's is a paradox, which, 
like every paradox, is a one-sided truth carried in the 
warmth of the feelings too far; which designedly 
ignores all other aspects of the truth, in order to 
direct the whole attention to this one ; which is so 
wholly absorbed and affected by the one view, that it 
can neither think nor speak of any thing besides it. 

We may, in certain moods of religious feeling, be 
so overcome with what we as sinners may attain to 
through redemption, or with what we should have 
come short of without it, that for the moment all 
other interests seem to vanish. The unspeakable 
blessedness derived from the grace of God, upon the 
occasion of our transgression, may so absorb all sense 
and reason, that for the time we should forget entirely 
from whence we have fallen by sin ; what we have 
lost thereby, and what we might have attained to, 
had sin never entered the human family. But, should 
we attempt to raise what is only relatively true, to 
the level of a scientific principle, and continue what 
is natural and allowable only in certain frames of 
religious feeling and emotion, into our ordinary pro- 
cesses of reflection, and make it the grave judgment 
of the understanding, — then what had heretofore 
been half truth, would become wholly error ; then 
would that which arose from the inmost soul as a 
high hymn of praise to the grace of God, become a 
slander against the Divine holiness. Were we in 
calm reason to say : God be praised that Adam fell 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 501 

into sin, — this would be the import of our words: 
God be praised that we are sinners, that we have 
sinned — which were simply, blasphemy. 

There are but two ways of avoiding such a wanton 
impeachment of God's character. We must either 
give up the view, that a higher and more glorious 
state is to be arrived at through the medium of re- 
demption, than could have been gained in a sinless 
and normal development; and acknowledge that 
Eedemption was the only object of the Incarnation, 
so that the decree of the incarnation stands or falls 
with the decree of redemption : or we may retain 
that view, and then imagine that the incarnation was 
conditioned by the creation itself, as the necessary 
complement of the latter ; so that not the incarnation, 
in itself, but merely its actual earthly character, — 
connection with the low estate, the misery and the 
condemnation of fallen human nature — was condi- 
tioned by the occurrence of sin. 

It is for the Scriptures to decide between these two 
modes of apprehension, and it requires but little ex- 
amination to see that they pronounce in favor of the 
first one. 

It is clear upon the face of Holy Writ, that in all 
cases, as often and repeatedly as the subject of the 
incarnation is treated of, sin alone is represented as 
the cause, and redemption as the object of this mira- 
cle of Divine love : this must be conceded even by 
the abettors of the opinion we would combat. But 
they maintain that the Scriptures, being concerned 
everywhere with the concrete reality of the sinful 
state of man, could have had no occasion nor any 



502 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

motive for telling us what would have happened, had 
sin never entered the world; and moreover, that 
Christian speculation, since it feels the need of hav- 
ing its horizon extended in this direction, is justified 
in the attempt, and capable of completing the Bibli- 
cal theory of the world in respect to this point, from 
the Christian consciousnesses begotten and fostered 
by Divine revelation. 

But still, we cannot help viewing the matter in a 
different light. The question whether God should 
have become man, had man never been guilty of sin, 
is by no means one possessed of significance for 
speculation alone, and not affecting a practical ac- 
quaintance with the facts of salvation. If we be 
compelled to answer this question in the affirmative, 
the answer will so significantly affect the doctrine of 
salvation, give it so wholly different a substructure, 
and force it to assume from its foundation to its very 
summit so essentially different a coloring, that the 
Scriptures, notwithstanding their signally practical 
tendency, could not well have been wholly silent 
here. It will not do to reply, therefore, that they 
say nothing in regard to this point, because they 
should have had no motive for so doing. They are 
silent not because they do not consider the matter 
of sufficient importance to mention, but because 
they know nothing of an incarnation apart from sin; 
because it was not conceived why such a doctrine 
could be broached, since it is of itself so apparent 
that the incarnation must be conditioned through 
the existence of human guilt alone. 

And our opponents appeal, moreover, to the neces- 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 503 

sary judgment of the Christian consciousness, that it 
is altogether inconceivable that a higher and more 
glorious portion awaits man, through the entrance 
of sin, than could have been acquired by means of a 
normal sinless course of development. Were the 
supposition here involved a correct one, its conse- 
quences also, as we have before observed, would 
have to be admitted. But it requires but a few 
words to show that it is incorrect and without foun- 
dation. 

However strong the language is, and superabound- 
ing the terms, in which the JSTew Testament describes 
the glory and blessedness of the redeemed in heaven; 
still there is nothing there said which cannot, yea, 
which must not be conceived as having been involved 
in the destinies and capacities assigned to the human 
race in the creation itself. The glory of man's pri- 
meval state and the glory of his future state, are 
related to each other as the germ to its development, 
as is destiny to its realization. There is nothing 
absolutely new to be discovered in the glory of the 
redeemed, nothing that we are not to suppose was 
already existing as a germ, capability, or a beginning, 
in the image of Grod, in which man was created. It 
was in this image that our right to be children and 
heirs of God was involved, 1 in it man was already 
made a partaker of the Divine nature, 2 and in it was 
already instituted man's likeness to God. 3 

Sin and Redemption are correlatives. The severer 
and more dangerous the disease, the more vigorous 
and powerful must be the remedy. The significance 

1 Rom. 8 : 17. 2 2 Pet. 1:4. 3 1 John 3 : 2. 



504 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

of redemption is exalted, just in the degree that we 
swell the enormity of sin ; and. conversely, the greater 
the measures taken by God for our redemption from 
sin, the greater also must be the depth and extent of 
that destruction into which we have been cast by sin. 
The Christian consciousness strenuously demands 
that both be placed at the highest possible mark ; it 
beholds in the one an infinite, an immeasurable, and 
an irremediable destruction ; in the other an infinite, 
an immeasurable, and an adorable salvation. Our 
opponents, however, do violence and injury to the 
Christian consciousness, just in that point where it is 
most delicately sensitive, and can least suffer its 
intuitions to be called into question. For in their 
refusal to acknowledge that the incarnation, as such, 
was conditioned by sin ; and their affirmation that 
merely a particular form of its manifestation — its 
lowly and humiliating aspect — was thus conditioned, 
they detract from the enormity and weight of sin, 
and from the value of redemption. That God should 
assume human nature, is the one great and infinite 
act of condescension and self-renunciation on the 
part of Deity ; but this one only adorable miracle of 
eternal love is not, forsooth, to stand in any way con- 
nected with sin ! The incomparably lesser act of 
self-denial only ; that the man in whom God should 
otherwise have become incarnate, assumes the 
sorrows of humanity and suffers mortal death, this 
alone is to be laid to the account of sin ! How much 
of the significance of redemption is thus lost, and 
how much less forbidding is the aspect of sin ! But 
what is still far worse, not at all comporting with the 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 505 

Christian consciousness, and wholly uncompatible 
with the teachings of Sacred Writ; redemption ceases 
to be the free gift of Divine mercy, and resolves itself 
into a necessity arising out of the creation itself. For 
if the creation demand for its completion and for the 
consummation of the destinies of humanity, an in- 
carnation of Deity, this must come to pass, no more 
if man take an abnormal, than if he take a normal 
course of development. Thus sin is less to be held 
responsible for the sad condition of man, since the 
powers assigned to him in the creation still need re- 
inforcement through a future incarnation of God ; 
and it loses in abhorrent significance in opposition to 
the great plan of God, since the incarnation should 
have taken place without it. True, the Incarnation 
would thus still remain an adorable miracle of Divine 
love, a decree of free grace sufficient to exhaust all 
praise — but not so with Redemption. The latter were 
conditioned through the decree of the incarnation, 
but not through overflowing Divine compassion in 
view of sad and miserable estate of fallen humanity. 

It may be considered as established, therefore, that 
the incarnation upon the earth was conditioned alone 
through the free grace of God,in view of overcoming 
and eradicating sin and its consequences ; and that 
humanity would never have required the incarnation 
of Deity, to reach that high position which now in- 
deed can be reached only by means of the incarna- 
tion, had sin, with its disturbing and destructive 
influences, never entered the race. 

Having become possessed of this result, we return 
again to the question with which we set out : "Is the 
43 



506 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

assumption of an Incarnation of Deity in the other 
worlds inhabited by reasonable beings, necessary or 
admissible even ? " 

Such an assumption is not admissible ; for there is 
no place for it in the Biblical theory of the world, 
and it is not demanded by the Christian conscious- 
ness. At least, the worlds whose inhabitants have 
never fallen, stand in no need of such an extraordi- 
nary aid ; since in the creation itself there was given 
to all creatures the means and capabilities requisite, 
that each one might in its own manner reach that 
great and common end, comprehending all things : 
" that God may be all in aU." The question appears in 
a different light, however, in connection with those 
worlds where spiritual beings have experienced a fall 
similar in some respects to that of man upon the 
earth. It is not to be simply and immediately repel- 
led in such cases, nor is it any more to be affirma- 
tively answered, without due consideration. For it 
must first be discovered whether these beings, like 
man, are capable of salvation. 

Human science is wholly unable to discover any 
traces of the presence of reasonable beings upon 
other worlds, to say nothing of the moral condition 
of such beings. Hence it belongs altogether to Scrip- 
ture to answer our inquiry. Only two kinds of spiri- 
tual beings are known to the Bible and spoken of by 
it: Angels and Men. It does, indeed, acquaint us 
with the fact that a part of the angels at least, fell 
from their allegiance to God ; but we are at the same 
time expressly told that they are incapable of salva- 
tion (Comp. chap. 4, § 21). Hence, we must sum up 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 507 

the following as the result of this discussion ; that 
an incarnation of God can have occurred upon the 
earth only, and nowhere else ; and that the inhabi- 
tants of the other worlds either do not require a re- 
demption, and with it an incarnation as the procur- 
ing cause, since they have not been the subjects of a 
fall, or that they are incapable of redemption if they 
be fallen beings. 

§ 18. Continuation. 

The design of the incarnation was to conduct fallen 
man back to communion with God, and to advance 
him to that goal for which by virtue of his being 
made in the image of God he was destined and ren- 
dered capable. The ultimate end of redemption 1 is 

1 ["The assumption of the human by the divine nature, to say 
nothing of its primary consequences, supersedes a multitude of 
questions and speculations that might have been entertained rela- 
tive to the station which man may natively be fitted to occupy. 
And it should not escape notice that human salvation is, with 
great uniformity of terms, spoken of by the inspired writers, as 
a restoration, a recovery; it is the bringing him back to the dig- 
nity he had lost. No expressions are employed which might seem 
to indicate that an alteration, or extension of the original plan of 
the human system had been admitted ; or as if an arbitrary de- 
rangement of the ranks and orders of the intelligent system had 
been made, in consequence of which the family of Adam are to 
be promoted over the heads of others, to a place higher than their 
qualities should fairly warrant. 

Philosophical theories of human nature are in fault, on the side 
both of presumption and of frigid diffidence. For too much is 
assumed in behalf of man in what belongs to his actual condition, 
and his unassisted powers ; and far too little in what relates to 
his original destination, to the importance of his present behavior, 
and to his future lot. But the Scriptures, in their history of man,' 



508 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

no other and no higher than that of the creation ; but 
redemption demanded an incomparably higher species of 
Divine manifestation, an infinitely greater self-abne- 
gation on the part of God, than the creation. For 
the creation had to do with a mere bringing about ; 
it originated a pure beginning, a capability, which 
through its own development was competent to reach 
its final goal. This beginning was, through the power 
of sin, rent away from the source of its life ; the ca- 
pability was destroyed, the further development was 
rendered impossible, and the personality sunk into a 
depth of destruction from which no created power 
could retrieve it. The mission of redemption was 
therefore a much greater and more comprehensive 
one ; it demanded not merely the institution of a 
new, but also a negation of the old ; not merely a 
restitution to the lost, but also an evolution to the 
yet unattained. 

The question as to how the incarnation of Christ 
upon the earth is related to the spiritual inhabit- 
ants of the other worlds, hence coincides with the 
question as to how the creation of man is related to 
the same beings. The incarnation of God no more 

set out from a point more elevated, follow him through a course 
that descends to the lowest depths ; and again present him as 
emerging, and as setting out on an upward path that lead3 to an 
immeasurable height. . . . The style of the Bible, in this point, 
prepares us to receive whatever it may have to affirm concerning 
human destinies ; and leave is given at once to entertain the 
greatest conceptions, when, in the first page of the sacred canon, 
it is said, and said with emphasis, that God created man in his own 
image; hi the image of God createdhe man."- Isaac Taylor, Satur~ 
day Evening, pp. 31G, 317, 330. — Tr.] 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 509 

involves the depreciating, prejudicing or neglecting 
of the claims of the other spiritual inhabitants of the 
universe, than did the creation of man in the image 
of God. The circumstance that man, already in the 
creation, was destined for a higher goal than were 
they, and that despite the sin of Adam this goal was 
to he reached, by virtue of a new and highest miracle 
of Divine grace, could in nowise be of disadvantage 
to them. 

But truly an inestimable advantage might it be. 
A schism had been introduced into the world of the 
other spiritual creatures, through the fall and revolt 
of a part of the angels. The harmony of the uni- 
verse had been destroyed. In order to restore it, 
man was created, yet falling himself also, was re- 
deemed, since he was capable of redemption. 

The incarnation hence results to the advantage of 
the whole universe. If the view, of old entertained, 
which regards man as the microcosm, i. e. as the 
representation of all creatures, as that product of the 
creative hand in which all substances and potencies, 
all powers and capacities of the body and the soul, 
of nature and the will, which are scattered at large 
and singly throughout the universe, are to be found 
in concentrated form, — if this view be correct, then 
may it be also true and conceivable, that God, in tak- 
ing immediately upon himself human nature, thereby 
mediately took upon himself also the nature of all 
other creatures. 

Speculation, empirical science, and revelation (chap. 
4, § 9), all agree so clearly and decidedly in the view, 
that man is to be regarded as the microcosm of the 
43* 



510 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

terrestrial world, that we can dispense with all further 
proof in regard to this point. All terrestrial forces 
and substances, all potencies of animal and vegetable 
life, are present in man in concentrated and subli- 
mated form. An incarnation of God results, there- 
fore, to the advantage also of all the rest of earthly 
creatures. 

The next inquiry will be, whether man also may 
be regarded as the microcosm of the universe, as 
the representative of all other and extra-mundane 

creatures. 

Empirical science and experience, as the matter at 
present stands, can not be acknowledged as compe- 
tent arbiters in this question. It will be readily con- 
ceded, that empirical science proves nothing of such 
a position in man; but no less surely must it be con- 
ceded, that there are very many things both in heaven 
and upon earth, of which our present empirical 
science neither knows nor is capable of knowing 
anything. 

The ignorance of science, however, in regard to 
this point, is for these reasons not decisive : in the 
first place, because the potency of the beginning (i. e. 
the powers lent in the creation) has not yet been un- 
folded ; but rather, disturbed in its normal evolution, 
as a result of the fall, has been perverted to abnormal 
revolution ;— and in the second place, because the 
restoration by means of redemption, is not completed, 
has not yet advanced to that point where all revolution 
is overcome, and the neglected evolution adequately 
represented. 

If in general anything decisive is to be gathered 



TIIE INCARNATION OF GOD. 511 

in regard to this question, it is clear that it can be 
from revelation alone. And there are three points 
which may here come into consideration: the original 
destiny of man, assigned to him in the beginnhnj 
through the creation, but disturbed and interrupted 
through the power of sin; — then the potency and 
fullness of the restoration, in the mean time, repre- 
senting itself in the triumph and exaltation of the 
( iod-man ; — and finally, the fulness of the end, which 
shall at length have imparted itself from the exalted 
Son of Man to all his people, i. e. those who have 
been born of Jfim, and regenerated to a new life and 
a Dew development 

Let us regard these three points of christian reve- 
lation somewhat more closely, in older to see whether 
they offer us any thing in answer to the present ques- 
tion, and if so, what it may be. 

As to what concerns the creation, it is clear from 
the Bible itself, that the earth is to be regarded as 
the world last created, and also man as the last of all 
personal creatures. When man, the crown and seal 
of all earthly creatures, had been created, then had 
God finished all the works of creation ; then began 
the rest of God, which marked the absolute cessation 
of all pure creative activity. The earth and man, 
through this their position in the scale of creation, 
acquired an unwonted and culminating significance 
in the universe : here was the goal and end of all 
Divine creative activity, the close and consummation 
of the whole idea of creation. 

Still more clearly does this culminating and closing 
destiny and position of man in relation to the whole 



512 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

universe, stand forth to view, when we recognize as 
correct, that view, which in the fourth chapter of this 
work, we have sought to show as legitimately result- 
ing from the accounts of revelation contemplated as 
a whole. The view is this : that the earth, being 
transformed into a dreary chaos through the fall of 
the angels, was renewed in the six days' work, and 
assigned to man as his dwelling-place, in order that 
he might do away with the disharmony in the uni- 
verse, and restore all to peace and order. 

If we now proceed to the consideration of the 
Biblical doctrine of the God-man, we shall here dis- 
cover more clearly the admissibility of such a view. 

Christ, the God-man, in whom human nature re- 
presented itself in its absolute ideality, was, accord- 
ing to the abundant declarations of the New Testa- 
ment, exalted, after the completion of His work upon 
earth, above all creatures in heaven and upon earth, 
so that He sustains, preserves, and fills all things. 
This exaltation, however, refers not to His divine, but 
to His human nature : indeed, strictly taken, exclu- 
sively to the latter, since his Godhead from its very 
nature already possessed a like exalted position. 
"He took upon him," says the Apostle, Phil. 2 : 7- 
11, "He took upon him the form of a servant, and was 
made in the likeness of men, and being found in 
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. 
Wlierefore God also hath highly exalted him, and 
given him a name which is above every name ; that 
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 



THE INCARNATION OF GOD. 513 

under the earth ; and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father." The same Apostle speaks still more 
clearly in Eph. 1, 20-23 : " God raised him (the man 
Jesus) from the dead, and set him at his own right 
hand, in heavenly places ; far ahove all principality, 
and power, and might, and dominion, and every 
name that is named, not only in this world, but also 
in that which is to come : and hath put all things 
under his feet, and gave him to be head over all 
things to the Church which is his body, the fulness of 
him thatfilleth all in all" And in verse 10 he says 
that the purpose of God consists in this: "that he 
may gather together in one all things in Christ (the 
God-man), both which are in heaven, and which are 
on earth, even in him ; in w r hom also we have ob- 
tained an inheritance." 

Here, now, the view that man, according to his 
original destiny, subsequently disturbed by sin, but 
happily to be restored through redemption, is to be 
regarded as the microcosm, the potential representa- 
tive of the macrocosm, receives its express Biblical 
confirmation. For, in the first place, the man Jesus 
here evidently appears as the microcosm. But what 
holds good of the man Jesus, holds good also of all 
men redeemed by him, and conducted to their proper 
destiny. For the essence of redemption, in its posi- 
tive aspect, consists in this : that Christ, as the Son 
of man, as the representative and prototype of hu- 
manity, as the second Adam, represented the idea of 
humanity in its full completeness : primarily in his 
own person, in order then as head of the organism, 



514 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

a member of which he became through his incarna- 
tion, to draw us after himself, and conduct us to a 
like perfection (comp. chap. 4, § 26) ; since we have 
entered into communion with his victorious life, in 
like manner as he became united with our helpless 
and sinful life. Besides, the Church, which is his 
body, and of which he is the head, is here expressly 
designated as the "fullness of him who filleth all in 
all." He, the head, filleth all in all, and the Church, 
his body, is his fulness, with which, and through 
which, he filleth all in all. 

Iso less clearly and distinctly is this view favored 
by the Biblical doctrine of the end of the world. The 
end of the development of our terrestrial world, is, 
according to Holy Writ, the end of all world-develop- 
ment: the judgment of man coincides with the judg- 
ment of all creatures, and the destruction, purifica- 
tion and renovation of the earth is also connected 
with the renovation of the heavens. JN"ow, the Scrip- 
tures contain no intimation, nor do they anywhere 
in the least imply, that the entrance of this common 
end of the world, is in any measure conditioned by 
extra-mundane developments, unconnected with the 
earth : nay rather, they make it wholly dependent 
upon terrestrial developments ; and the consumma- 
tion of the celestial worlds and the inhabitants of hea- 
ven is delayed, merely because one cannot be made 
perfect without the other; because the consumma- 
tion consists precisely in this, that all things be 
gathered together in one, and God be all in all, 1 
Comp. chap. 4, § 24. 

1 Heb. 11 : 40 ; Eph. 1 : 10 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 28. 



END OF THE WORLD. 515 

§ 19. The Catastrophe of the End of the World. 

We have indicated above (in § 1), as the three 
chief points in the Biblical theory of the world, 
which are menaced with abandonment, as irreconcil- 
able with the results of astronomy, the following : 
the Biblical doctrines of the creation of the world, of 
the redemption of the world, and of the judgment of 
the world. The two first mentioned points we have 
already sufficiently taken into consideration ; and 
have clearly shown that they may be fully harmo- 
nized with the results of astronomy. It now remains 
to dispose of the third point in a like satisfactory 
manner. 

According to the teachings of sacred Writ, the 
whole fabric of the world (not merely the earth, but 
also the heavens at the same time) awaits a catas- 
trophe by which it is to be changed and renewed (as 
an old garment is cast off and supplied by a new). 
chap. 4, § 34, 35. 

We have already seen, in chap. 5, § 5, that astron- 
omy, as far as it, supported by the experience and 
observation of thousands of years, and sustained by 
the most delicate calculations, is in a condition to 
pronounce upon the stability of the present cosmical 
order and arrangements, must give this as its delib- 
erate judgment: that our solar system at least, and 
in all probability the heavens of the fixed stars, bears 
the character of the most undisturbed and immovable 
harmony, order, and stable adjustment; since there 
is no power or accident whatever within the know- 
ledge of this science, by which the existing order 



516 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

might be destroyed, altered, or endangered. ISTay 
rather, it clearly shows that all apparent disturbances 
which celestial bodies exert upon each other, are so 
wisely and nicely designed and adjusted in the com- 
plex web of celestial movements, that they, instead 
of being tokens of a probable or possible destruction 
of this or any other system, much rather appear as 
the presages and pledges of the undisturbed continu- 
ance of the existing order. 

It would be maintained that the Biblical doctrine 
of a future renovation of the world, in connection 
with a destruction of the same, must give way before 
the astronomical doctrine of the unshaken stability 
of the present cosmical arrangements. 

The best reply to any such assumption is given by 
the Scriptures themselves, and in the very place where 
they teach most clearly and fully of a future destruc- 
tion of the world: in 2 Pet. 3 : 4 seqq. It is there an- 
swered to those who say : " Where is the promise of 
his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation :" — " This they are willingly ignorant of, that 
by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the 
earth standing out of the water and in the water; 
whereby the world that then was, being overflowed 
with water, perished : but the heavens and the earth, 
which are now, by the same word are kept in store, 
reserved unto fire," etc. 

Here reference is made to the analogy of a his- 
torical fact, which may be regarded as in a certain 
sense a type or exponent of that general and tremen- 
dous catastrophe of the world — to the deluge. In 



END OF THE WORLD. 517 

the relations between land and sea, between the pro- 
duction and consumption of water, there existed of 
old, notwithstanding any partial disturbances, such a 
fixed, well-ordered, and constant proportion, that no 
antediluvian philosopher, even of the most learned 
and highly advanced order, could have suspected or 
foreseen any tokens of the possibility or probability 
of such a universal and mighty catastrophe, involv- 
ing and transforming the whole surface of the earth; 
and yet the flood broke forth when it was least ex- 
pected, and sources of destruction were opened in 
the fountains of the great deep and from the win- 
dows of heaven, in a manner surprising and appal- 
ling to all minds. "In the six hundredth year of 
Noah's life, in the second month, in the seventeenth 
day of the month, the same day were all the foun- 
tains of the great deep broken up, and the windows 
of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the 
earth forty days and forty nights." 1 

"And as the days of Noah were, so shall also 
the coming of the Son of Man be." 2 As formerly, 
from the profound depths of the earth, never 
pentrated by the inquiring eye of man, and from 
the regions aloft, where the clouds are formed 
according to a law which no human investigation 
has yet discovered, there suddenly broke out floods 
of destruction, which in a moment silenced all scep- 
tics and deriders with their appalling terrors, — so 
also there may lie hidden in the heights and depths 
of the universe, latent forces, which in future may 
leap forth at the call of the Mighty Creator and 

*Gen. 7: 11, 12. 2 Matt. 24 : 37. 

44 



518 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

Judge of the world, with an energy and universality 
capable of bringing about at once a transformation 
and renovation of the heavens and the earth. 

But what is to be the outward manifestation and 
nature of this final catastrophe, as foretold by pro- 
phecy ? The Scriptures say : " The heavens shall 
pass away with a great noise, and th,e elements shall 
melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works 
that are therein shall be burned up. Nevertheless, 
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 1 

Of all the elements known to us, none is so 
mighty, so pervading and energetic, as fire. Of all 
destructive elements fire is the most destructive ; but 
since it destroys that which is perishable, and sepa- 
rates dross and impurities from the genuine and the 
pure, it also frees the imperishable and the noble 
from the bonds of the perishable and the ignoble, 
and places the former in all its purity, its excellence 
and glory, in its true position. Hence fire has ever 
been recognized not only as the symbol of ruin and 
destruction ; but also, with equal propriety, as the 
type of the most energetic and thorough purification 
and renovation. 

If, therefore, the final catastrophe of the world is 
to be, not merely a ruiDOus and destructive, but at 
the same time, and signally, a purifying and renovat- 
ing process, it is clear that of all the means known 
to us, none better adapted to secure the end in view 
.can be imagined, than fire. 

But as fire is the most energetic and mighty of all 

1 2 Pet. 3 : 10-13. 



END OF THE WORLD. 519 

the elements, so also is it the most universally dis- 
seminated : it lies hidden in all bodies, and may be 
called forth at any moment, by mechanical and dy- 
namic means. An inextinguishable furnace of fire 
glows within the hidden depths of the earth ; fiery 
bolts leap forth from the clouds of the heavens ; fire 
is begotten by the sun ; and those as it were spiritual 
agencies of electricity, which in all probability flit 
through the regions of the created everywhere, seek- 
ing ever and in vain their equilibrium, involve a 
signal fulness and intensity of fire-development. 

Though it be further foretold by prophecy, that 
fearful signs in heaven and upon earth shall precede 
or accompany the final catastrophe ; that the sun and 
moon shall lose their light, the stars fall from the 
firmament, and the sign of the coming of the Son of 
man be seen in the heights of the heavens; these 
matters are no more subjects for the judgment of 
astronomy, than the final catastrophe itself. This 
science can furnish little or nothing in explanation 
of such matters, or for a physical understanding of 
them ; but still less can it presume upon the posses- 
sion of any power to prove the physical impossibility 
of such occurrences. 

That the sun and moon may become obscured, is 
matter of experience from year to year : portentous 
appearances in the heavens, which involuntarily fill 
the bosom of the beholder with painful or astounding 
forebodings, are by no means unheard of, as is proven 
in the sudden and remarkable advent of comets, from 
time to time. Stars have vanished from the heavens 
under the eye of the astronomer, and our November 



520 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

nights repeatedly display the scene of thousands of 
small asteroids falling from the heavens, and the like. 
We would by no means maintain that the obscura- 
tion of the sun and the moon, in that great day of 
the future, is to be nothing else than an ordinary 
eclipse of the sun or moon ; that the sign of the Son 
of man is to be identical with the appearance of a 
comet, or even that the falling of the stars from the 
heavens is to be referred to a mere shower of shoot- 
ing stars ; nay, rather, we believe that those points 
in prophecy denote something wholly different, some- 
thing heretofore unseen and unheard of; but these 
facts of experience may certainly be taken as pre- 
sages or tokens of the possibility of these appearances 
in the heavens, as foretold in prophecy. 

§ 20. The Duration of the present Course of the Earth. 

Our earth must revolve around the sun 18 million 
times, before the sun itself, together with the whole 
solar system, completes a single revolution in that 
wide sweep of movement in which it is involved 
with all the fixed stars, about that throne of cosmical 
power, which lies in the centre of the system of the 
Milky- Way. The great year of the universe, there- 
fore, in which the heavens complete one revolution 
around the common centre, comprehends, if Mddler 
be correct, 18 millions of terrestrial years (chap. 
5, § 9.) 

How tiny and insignificant does our earth here 
appear, how meagre the idea and compass of mortal 
time, as it here sustains, limits, and controls us! 
How short and paltry does the period of the exist- 



DURATION OF THE EARTH. 521 

ence of the earth and the human race appear, when 
opposed to such a rule of measurement ! What are 
six thousand in opposition to eighteen millions of 
years ! 

The present order of things upon the earth has 
existed, according to Scripture, almost six thousand 
years. How long shall it yet continue, till the great 
day that shall close the course of the present world ; 
when the heavens and the earth, upon the coming 
of the Son of man, shall be transformed and re- 
newed, in order that a new and ever-enduring period 
may be introduced ? 

The Scriptures distinctly reply : " It is not for us 
to know the times or the seasons which the Father 
hath put in his own power. Of that day and that 
hour knoweth no man : no, not the angels which are 
in heaven." 1 

The Apostles, and with them pious believers of 
all ages, have regarded the day of the future as near 
at hand. It was not objective prophecy which ex- 
pressed itself in this lively expectation ; but rather, 
the subjective state of the devout and religious mind, 
the sentiment of earnest longing and ardent desire, 
which was founded in reason and fully justified. 
Centuries have since gone by, and centuries, yea, 
thousands of years may yet flow on, before the sub- 
jective point of expectation shall coincide with the 
objective point of the fulfilment. 

Yet, though it be possible that still hundreds and 
thousands of years should pass away, before the great 
day of the end, still it is impossible upon the ground 

1 Acts 1:7; Mark 13 : 32, 33. 
44* 



522 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

presented by Scripture, to imagine its objective mani- 
festation so far in the future, that there should exist 
a corresponding relation on the one hand, between 
the present course of the earth, with the close of 
which also the end of the heavens in their present 
constitution is to coincide, and the cosmical period 
of revolution belonging to the heavens as a whole, 
on the other. The position of the incarnation of 
Christ in the middle of the age of the world, the 
ever-increasing clearness of the signs of the times, 
the approach of the final fulfilment of the instituted 
conditions and the harbingers of the time of the con- 
summation — all this forbids us most imperiously to 
seek for the boundaries of the developments of the 
earth, at such a remote and obscure distance. 

Are we therefore to understand that the heavens 
arc to be changed as an old garment, before they 
have reached a single year of their existence, before 
they have completed a single revolution ? 

A twofold misunderstanding, with the solution of 
which this question loses all significance, lies at its 
foundation. Those six thousand years of the Bibli- 
cal chronology, as we have already seen, assuredly 
do not refer to the beginning of the whole universe, 
nor even to the first beginning of the earth, but to 
the restitution and new-creation of the latter ; or 
rather, merely to the creation of man, who first ap- 
peared after this new-creation. But between the 
primeval creation and this new creation there lies an 
undefined and indeterminable period. 

And this, further, is then overlooked: that the 
future age of the world, to which the judgment ap- 



COSMICAL CONSUMMATION. 523 

pears as the entrance, cannot be one apart from time. 
Time, which is a necessary correlative of the crea- 
ture, shall certainly not cease, but shall only be ab- 
sorbed into eternity ; just as the creature shall not 
cease to be the creature, but shall be exalted to a par- 
ticipation in the fulness of the Divine glory (Comp. 
chap. 4, § 30). But if time do not cease to be time, 
in the eternity of the future age of the world, cer- 
tainly the movements and revolutions of the worlds, 
which are the media and indices of time, shall also 
not cease. The heavens shall certainly not be anni- 
hilated through the final catastrophe, but only be 
renewed, consummated, and rendered glorious ; and 
the less the heavens are affected by that destruction, 
which in the purifying fires of the judgment day 
shall separate the dross as hell, so much the less also 
shall they be altered from their present constitution. 

§ 21. The Cosmical Consummation. 

Finally, let us cast a glance at the cosmical state of 
consummation of the future world. 

Here at length must the whole dignity and worth 
of the earth, and of its inhabitants, men, have 
arrived at full and open manifestation. All devas- 
tation and ruin brought upon the earth by the two- 
fold catastrophe of the fall of angels and men, must 
now be overcome, and rooted out ; and all destinies 
attached to the earth through the counsel of divine 
wisdom, both in its original creation and also in its 
new-creation for man, have arrived at the highest 
and fullest unfolding and manifestation of them- 
selves. 



524 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

As we have previously been compelled to concede 
cosmical distinction to the heavenly worlds as the 
dwelling-place of the angels, over the earth in its 
present condition ; so also must we expect that in 
the consummated state of our at present so lowly 
and imperfect abode, it will after its own manner, 
have arrived at a level with the angelic abodes, in 
respect to those points in which it now falls below 
them, as they manifest a superior development and 
perfection ; and on the other hand, that the distin- 
guishing features which now, in harmony with its 
destiny, belong to the earth in contrast to the rest 
of the celestial worlds, but still as unfolded germs, 
veiled in the form of lowliness, disturbed and per- 
verted through the curse of sin, shall have appeared 
in their complete fulness and perfection. 

Hence we expect that in the cosmical regions of 
the earth in the future, at least an equally vigorous 
co-operation of the now antagonistic contrasts shall 
take place, with that of now more favored regions : 
that sin and death, together with all their shadows 
and fruits, shall be removed : that an equally vital 
harmony, an equally close communion and reciprocal 
influence, equally intimate bonds of sympathy and 
love, shall be found between the members of our 
solar system, now isolated and existing in their indi- 
vidual capacities. Perhaps this shall take place in a 
similar manner to that observed in the heavens : per- 
haps these worlds, so completely separated, yet re- 
lated and belonging together, attuned to the harmony 
of a higher music of the spheres, shall celebrate a 
like sacred and holy jubilee of assembled celestial 



COSMICAL CONSUMMATION. 525 

hosts : perhaps also they shall then stand in the most 
vital and immediate commnnication with each other 
— similar also in this to the celestial worlds — per- 
haps then that dark, unilluminated, and unillumin- 
able sea of ether belonging to our system, most 
thoroughly pervaded with light, shall also afford us 
an " eternal sunshine," and the very same sea of 
ether which now so rudely dissociates world from 
world, then most intimately unite them, as the light- 
atmosphere of the heavens of the fixed stars binds 
together all the worlds that float within it. 

But wherein is the greater glory, the pre-eminence 
which our earth in future is to possess over all other 
worlds, to consist ? In this : that redeemed, glorified 
humanity, originally created in the image of God, 
and again restored to that image, is to dwell there ; 
that the Lord of glory, who has taken upon himself 
our nature to all eternity, shall there dwell among 
his people, whom he is not ashamed to call brethren ; l 
that he shall bring with himself upon the glorious 
earth, the immaculate, unfading and imperishable 
inheritance of His sonship, of which they shall be 
co-heirs with Him ; that He shall there establish 
among them the most glorious throne of His grace 
and power, of His glory and majesty; that He him- 
self, the Uncreated Light, shall there shed around 
their souls the beams of a sacred and holy light 
which no mortal eye could endure. 

As to the conditions and changes that shall be 
hereby produced, in the physical condition of the 
earth and the wide system to which it belongs, and 

1 Heb. 2 : 11. 



526 CONFLICT AND HARMONY. 

in the cosmical position of both to the whoie universe, 
it here behooves us to stop short in mute silence and 
profound adoration, hoping only in the future to 
arrive at the beyond all measure glorious reply to 
such a significant inquiry. 

We have previously seen that the earth is alone in 
its manifested lowliness : in like manner it shall be 
alone, only in an opposite sense, in its future exalta- 
tion. As man is made a little lower than the angels, 
and still is "the embryo of the highest of creatures," 
so also is the earth made below the worlds of the 
angels, and yet is it " the most noble germ of the 
whole creation:" — as Judea is the least and most 
despised of all lands upon the earth, and still is the 
glorious land; 1 as Bethlehem was little among the 
thousands of Judah, 2 and yet the Sun of Righteous- 
ness there arose with healing in his wings ; 3 so also 
is our region the Judea of the universe, our poor 
earth the Bethlehem of this holy land, small and 
lowly, yet precious above all : — and as in the pro- 
phetic dream, the sun, moon, and stars, made obei- 
sance to Joseph, the least of all his brethren, so also 
in future shall the same bow down before the earth, 
the least of worlds in the universe. 

Formerly, when Jehovah laid the foundations of 
the earth, the morning stars, beholding with adoring 
wonder, sang together in choral songs of praise ; and 
as the Eternal Word, full of grace and truth, left the 
throne of glory to clothe Himself in flesh and blood, 
then swelled in higher and fuller notes the chorus of 
the heavenly host : Crlory to God in the highest, and 

1 Dan. 11 : 16-41. 2 Mic. 5:2. s Mai. 4 : 2. 



COSMICAL CONSUMMATION. 527 

on earth peace, good will toward men. In the future 
also, when the Son of Man shall come again in the 
clouds, surrounded by all the glory of his eternal 
Godhead, to renew the heavens and the earth, and 
consummate all things, then shall those sacred mes- 
sengers of His might and goodness, whose bosoms 
are thrilled with unspeakable joy at every new token 
of the spread of God's kingdom upon the earth, 1 be- 
hold with adoring wonder the development of those 
heaven-born mysteries they now desire to look into, 
and sing in purer tones and loftier chorus their eter- 
nal hallelujahs. 2 

1 Luke 15 : 7. 2 Acts 5 : 12, 13. 



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